Silvio Berlusconi – iffy finances, sex and politics

Silvio Berlusconi, media tycoon, politician and billionaire, four time Prime Minister of Italy, responsible for his country’s decline in economic terms and in standards of public life, has died aged 86.

  He exploited his wealth and influence over the media to acquire and wield power in an undemocratic manner. Like Trump and others who followed, he had millions of adoring supporters — and numerous critics outraged by his scandalous sexual behaviour with younger women and his disregard for the law. Throughout his years at the top, Italian prosecutors launched hundreds of investigations into his business affairs. They sought to convict him on charges ranging from tax fraud and false accounting to bribery of judges and illegal political party financing. Only by 2013 was he convicted of tax fraud for which he did not serve a prison sentence but was made to perform a year of community service in an old people’s home near his sumptuous Milan residence.  

  He was born 29 September 1936 5.40am Milan, Italy, the son of a bank employee, graduated in law and went into real estate with questionable financing, and two of his business partners were later convicted of crimes, one of collusion with the mafia.    

  He had a Sun Mercury in Libra is his exuberant 1st house with an equally super-optimistic Jupiter in Sagittarius in his 3rd house. His Venus in Scorpio in his financial 2nd house would give him a taste for spending money and indulging himself in the pleasures of the flesh – the 2nd house being Taurus’s natural home. Venus also squares Pluto for passion, possessiveness and manipulation; and his Venus opposed an 8th house Uranus in the chart area of business finances and sexuality – inventive, unpredictable, changeable.

  He also had a creative and neurotic Moon Saturn in Pisces opposition Neptune squaring onto his Jupiter – so he would channel his over active imagination into his boastful Jupiter in the 3rd to great effect.

  His chart certainly reflects money and sex as foreground issues and given that he was blessed with a gift for self-promotion and communication with a 1st house Sun and 3rd house Jupiter, his career choice of the media seems logical.

  He fitted the Italy Republic 10 June 1946 4pm chart well – with his Pluto on the Italy Midheaven and his Jupiter conjunct the South Node and his Sun conjunct the Italy 12th house Neptune. He controlled Italy’s destiny and direction for a while, though pulling it back it into its less evolved traits with his bombastic cheer and appealed to its delusions.

Kaczynski (+ MK Ultra, Mind Control) & Hanssen – bombs & treason

Two criminal oddities have died in prison – Unabomber Ted Kaczynski of suicide and former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, perpetrator of the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history when he sold information to the Russians, of natural causes.

Kaczynski, born May 22, 1942 at 4pm Chicago, was a prodigy, up at Harvard at 15, a mathematician, who abandoned his academic career to pursue a primitive lifestyle. He murdered three individuals and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the natural environment.

  He had a chart eerily similar to UK’s Fred West, a serial child rapist and killer, with an 8th house Uranus, Sun, Saturn conjunction trine a 12th house Neptune and sextile Pluto in the 10th. West had a marginally earthier chart and also suicided in prison while awaiting trial.

  Kaczynski had a charming Leo Moon trine Venus in Aries sextile a 9th house (of education) Jupiter Mercury in Gemini. He would be driven by the unconscious urges of his 8th house planets and his 10th house Pluto giving him an intense need to be in control.

Add On: The mystery was always how Kaczynski transformed from a star mathematics student to a terrorist. When he went up to Harvard, too young at 16, he was involved in a CIA-backed  mind-control experiment run by Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray. The program (MK Ultra) sought to understand how to control subjects’ minds, using harsh interrogation techniques. Professor Alston Chase, author of a book about the Unabomber, argued these experiences at Harvard  helped create the Unabomber. They did “shape his anger and legitimize his wrath.”

 During that period of Kaczynski’s life – 1958 to 61 – tr Pluto in early Virgo was square his 8th house Uranus, Sun, Saturn in Gemini which would dredge up his deeply buried unconscious. Even more tellingly his Solar Arc Mars was then conjunct his 10th house Pluto making him acutely frustrated, enraged and fearful, trapped and powerless. The potential for him to flip into acute mental illness was always there but such grotesquely irresponsible experiments may well have tipped the scales.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/06/11/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-harvard-experiment/

Robert Hanssen, 18 April 1944 11.31am Evergreen Park, Illinois, an FBI agent, was an oddball with a religious background, member of Opus Dei and a perverse need to have his sexual relations with his wife filmed and viewed by a friend. Over 22 years he made £1.4 million in cash by selling US intelligence documents to the Russians. He was sentenced in 2001 to fifteen life terms without the possibility of parole, incarcerated until his death.

  He had a 10th house Aries Sun and Venus also in Aries on his Midheaven. His Venus was in a Half Grand Sextile opposition Neptune and sextile Uranus and sextile Pluto. Charming and talented with his Venus, like Kaczynski, square Mars in Cancer. His 8th house Pisces Moon was square Uranus and on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. It is not entirely clear where his wildly contradictory traits came from – extreme religiosity v sexual perversion; love of country/dislike of Russians v treason/spying.

  His Jupiter in Leo was on the cusp of his 2nd house which would certainly give him a taste for money and the good life. And his 8th house Yod Moon would make him emotionally unbalanced, disorganised, lacking solid emotional foundations. His Moon is also a singleton, the only planet in Water. The rest of his chart is Fire Air – a hot air balloon loose on the ocean.   Kaczynski was also mainly Air Fire.

Carole Middleton – the party’s over, call it a day

Carole, matriarch of the Middleton family, grand mother to the heir to the heir to the throne is in embarrassment her Party Pieces mail order firm having collapsed into administration. Debts of £2.5 million, mainly owed to small suppliers, along with unpaid tax and a covid loan appear to be due to be written off since it is a limited company.  

  Given the Middleton’s conspicuous wealth over the years, funding seriously expensive private education for their children plus property investments and two daughters married ‘well’ it wouldn’t seem a stretch to at least recompense the small suppliers, if only for PR purposes.

  Carole, 31 January 1955, is a Sun Aquarius sextile a go-ahead Mars in Aries and maybe square a Taurus Sun. She also has Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto square Saturn in Scorpio – hard-driving, utterly determined and stubborn to the nth degree.  She also has a lucky Jupiter Uranus in Cancer square Neptune.

  Her Saturn is being upended by tr Uranus in opposition exactly now which will put her on a Saturnine guilt trip and that runs into a disruptive tr Uranus square her Pluto in 2024 and her Mercury in 2025  – so quite a sticky run of turbulence, prompting/inviting her to change which won’t be easy since flexibility isn’t her thing.

  Her relationship with daughter Catherine, Princess of Wales, is being challenged now with tr Pluto conjunct the composite Sun at zero degrees Aquarius and that will repeat through 2024. It was always a more demanding relationship than the cosy en famille brand suggested with a composite Sun square Saturn. Plenty of affection but super-high expectations as well.

  Husband Michael, 23 June 1949, an independent-minded Sun Uranus in Cancer, won’t appreciate tr Saturn Neptune in Aries in 2025 squaring his Sun Uranus which will also affect his relationship with Prince William.

  It’s a nothing story really but somehow odd. Given the amount of literally billions swilling round the Royal coffers you would have thought it could have been quietly paid up and shut down without fuss.   

UK politics – Tory turmoil, Labour brief winning streak ++ BJ political obituaries ++Hague

Boris Johnson flouncing off in a narcissistic rage, spewing bile and blame in all directions, appears to have shot his bolt with only a few die-hards still bleating his cause. There will be three byelections when Tories’ polling numbers are down but the party on present evidence looks unlikely to tear itself apart.

   Though Rishi Sunak’s Prime Ministerial term, 25 October 2022 is generally in a sinking, panicky year with the failure-ridden tr Neptune square Mars back this October and in early 2024. The Tory Party 1912 chart similarly has power-ebbing-away with tr Neptune square the Pluto exactly now and running on and off till January 2025. Sunak’s own personal chart has a disastrous run from this August through the autumn, repeating into early 2024.

  What is interesting astrologically-speaking is Sunak’s personal Sun Mercury in Taurus at 20/21 degrees is catching the tr Uranus conjunction exactly now – and rattling up the Conservative Party 9 May 1912 chart with its 18 degree Taurus Sun and 22 degree Saturn in Taurus in July – and for both that will rattle and shake right through into early 2024.

  Uranus usually says – change or stagnate. And it is not a prospect that Taurus regards with any enthusiasm since Taurean strength is perseverance along the same track. Where the Tories are concerned this is only the beginning since tr Pluto will move to exert pressure on their Venus square Uranus through 2024 to 2026. Like it or not, they will have to shake off the old and get onto a new track.

  The Labour Party 12 February 1906 is also on alert for change from this July onwards with tr Uranus square its Sun Venus and since that links into its Jupiter in Taurus they should be on a lucky run through 2024 into 2025, the beneficiary of Tory woes.  But their winning streak may well end up running into the buffers in later 2025/2026.  The Labour 1900 chart and Keir Starmer’s also indicate calamities come 2026.

  The LibDems, 3 March 1988, will be upbeat this year but move into disaster territory in polling terms once tr Neptune Saturn move into Aries in 2025 for several years onwards. The Greens look to be limping as well.

  Into confusing times – more of them. Except for Boris who once he recovers from his tantrum will sail off into the sunset to earn gzillions from speaking, publishing and the like with Jupiter moving through his 8th house from this July and thence onto his successful 10th. Regrettably since life is unfair he will continue to be a vengeful presence somewhere in the spotlight. Wife Carrie does have tr Neptune conjunct her Pisces Sun this year and next which with a new baby may just mean a drifting and daydreaming spell in a backwater, but not contented.

 For previous Boris Johnson posts: 30 May 2023; 15 January 2023; 23 July 2022.    

Add On: Criticism of Johnson has been excoriating from several well known commentators. Max Hastings who once gave him a job as a journalist and then fired him. “Selfish, ruthless and a stranger to truth, this scoundrel destroyed respect for Britain. He is perhaps the most selfish human being I have ever met, indifferent to the welfare of anyone save himself. It is striking that he has few, if any, personal friends. He demands loyalty, but is incapable of giving it to others. —–Tony Soprano would find him a tad ruthless.

Biographer Anthony Seldon: “The damage Boris Johnson has done is beyond measure. Britain has been left weaker by a prime minister who demeaned its institutions and sullied all those who came into his orbit. He ran the government as if he were the wayward manager of an amateur theatre company, full of histrionics, changes of mind and cliques. Politicians, aides and officials whom we spoke to for the book attest to the fact that he was quite incapable of telling truth from falsehood: that “he lied morning, noon and night” was a regular lament. ‘

Times journalist: Jenni Russell. “Forget partygate for the moment. Think back to 2016. Johnson backed Brexit not because he believed in it but because he calculated that by doing so he’d get the backing of the Tory right and outflank George Osborne as next Tory leader. If Johnson had stuck to his europhile views Brexit would have lost, he’d have succeeded Cameron in 2018 or so, and could be heading for his second term as Tory PM in a far more prosperous Britain than today — not the divided, anxious, disillusioned, poorer country that’s the Johnson legacy.”

William Hague: No one in modern British political history has so quickly squandered immense goodwill — with sadly irredeemable flaws.

The most serious of those has been a tendency to damage the institutions around him – the Supreme Court was dragged into politics to strike down an unreasonable prorogation of parliament. The Conservative Party was driven to a mass resignation of ministers to terminate an untenable leadership. Now, fair-minded MPs are attacked as a kangaroo court engaged in a witch-hunt. Even as he bolts out of the door, Boris pulls out a few bricks from the wall of another vital institution, parliament, and leaves a stain on the carpet of one that is less vital but a part of British life, the honours system.

Pat Robertson – sending the USA down the wrong road

Pat Robertson, the televangelist, who has died at 93, is notable not just because he turned God into a cash machine. But more damagingly he spearheaded the intrusion of religion into the Republican Party and US politics, which has led to the present day furore over abortion, gay rights and racism. He saw Trump as God’s plan for the USA and as such no secular election could overthrow him.

  He is blamed for Newt Gingrich’s rise in the 1990s and the GOP’s scorched-earth political warfare backed up by conspiratorial thinking about the evil liberal cabal they were fighting against. He later blamed cultural liberalism for 9/11 and abortion policy for Hurricane Katrina.

  He was born 22 March 1930 in Lexington, Virginia, no birth time, with a militant Christian mother Gladys who told him God had a plan for him. He racketed around, married ten weeks before the first child was born, skipped military service in Korea, failed the bar exam and was ecstatically ‘saved’ from depression by a Baptist missionary. His wife thought he was drunk. On the orders of the Lord he sold the family furniture, abandoned his eight months pregnant wife, to attend a religious camp in Canada. His wife put his actions down to his being a “religious nut” with “schizoid tendencies”. But she remained with him.

  He founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the fifth largest cable TV programme network system in the US. Various financial criticisms loomed thereafter including about his diamond mine in the Congo, none of which dented his popularity amongst the faithful. After a failed run for the presidency he became a GOP kingmaker.

  Latterly he was ranting and raving with fundamentalist fervour about feminists  being “anti-family lesbians”, gays “demonic” and non-Christians “termites” and predicted the world would end in 1982 or 2007.

  He was a Sun Aries with Uranus Venus conjunct in Aries on the focal point of a T Square to Pluto opposition Saturn (Moon) in Capricorn. A focal point Uranus can be a trailblazer and catalyst for change though not always for the better. Determined to upset the status quo it produces an aggressive reformer.

  He also had a Mutable T Square of a publicity-attracting Mars in Pisces opposition Neptune squaring onto an over confident Jupiter in Gemini.

  The combination of the depressive Saturn Pluto and the pumped-up Jupiter would give him a precarious mental balance.

  The other factor in his chart is the Taurus North Node which usually brings wrangles over money throughout life as well as issues around sexuality.

  He certainly was karmically intertwined with the Republican Party – or if you prefer, was destined to be connected.  The 12 October 1853 GOP chart has its Pluto conjunct his North Node and his Jupiter is conjunct their North Node. They gave him gravitas and kept the money rolling in and he gave them a recipe for winning.

  It is less obvious why (astrologically speaking) he became the spark which sent the USA down the raging, holier-than-thou (maybe) anti-liberal road which peaked with Trump. When Reagan moved into the White House which was around the time of religious politics becoming embedded (I think) Pluto was then in the final decan of Libra. Thus it was the marker for the final quarter of the Pluto cycle before it slide towards the Return this year.

  Depending on which side of the argument you are, this could be an indication of the USA in decline, slowly subsiding  into brain mush before the necessary reconstruction as Pluto moves into enlightened Aquarius. Though the demented prayer-lobby would no doubt see the advancing liberal movements as the decline rather than the reverse.

  It has always seemed to me an extreme oddity having abortion and gay rights etc centre foreground in a country that holds itself up as a liberal democracy.

  Maybe Pat Robertson’s passing is a sign?  

Donald Trump – the never-ending saga

Another criminal charge, another money-grabbing opportunity. Trump is raking in yet more campaign funds which continually spike every time another indictment against him is filed. Sigh. This recent charge sheet about Mar-a-Lago classified documents will list wilful retention of national defense secrets, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.  The eternally hopeful say this is the first time he has faced federal criminal charges, all previous legal embarrassments being in state courts, and he could face years in prison. He will appear for an arraignment on Tuesday at 3 p.m in Miami. Cynics point to his Houdini escape record and murmur unhappily that Florida would not be the first choice to guarantee justice will be dispensed.

   There are other pending legal bear-traps for him including hush money payments to Stormy Daniels; and the biggie which is Georgia and  Trump’s efforts to overturn the election there with charges perhaps coming this summer.

  Assuming his birth time is not out by hours then he has a lucky Jupiter midpoint being triggered at the moment until this coming Wednesday and a run of good fortune and morale-boosts from the middle of this November to early next April.

  He does have the poleaxing, trapped Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto in place throughout this year, which will put pressure on him. In addition to his Solar Arc Pluto square his Saturn which is gloom-inducing and indicates tough conditions.

   Next year he has a run of infuriating, high-tension and aggravating influences picking up from April, through May and exploding in July with a shock-setback as tr Uranus squares his Mars. Just before the election his Progressed Venus will square his Saturn making him feel unloved and in November 2024 his Progressed Moon will square his Pluto – neither of which suggest a great triumph. Though he does have tr Jupiter moving across his 10th house from May 2024 for a year or so which will keep his profile high.

Francoise Gilot – forging an escape route from Picasso

Francoise Gilot, a prolific and acclaimed artist, whose talent was underplayed because of her relationship with Pablo Picasso, has died at 101. Aged 21 in occupied Paris during WW11 she met Picasso, forty years her senior, while he was still married to the Russian dancer Olga Khokhlova and she replaced Doris Maar as his lover and muse. She remained with him for ten years, produced two children, and was the only one of his many mistresses to dump him, saying she loved him but left to prevent herself being destroyed.

   In later years she wrote a memoir about her time with Picasso including descriptions of his physical and emotional abuse. He sued to try to stop publication, though it went on to sell a million. He cut off contact with her and the two children, and tried to stop galleries exhibiting her work. As she was leaving Picasso sneered at her: “You imagine people will be interested in you?” They won’t ever, really, just for yourself. Even if you think people like you, it will only be a kind of curiosity they will have about a person whose life has touched mine so intimately.”

  She eventually moved to the US, marrying twice – including to the US polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk.

  Born 26 November 1921 1am Neuilly sur Seine, France, she had a quick-witted 3rd house Sagittarius Sun which was in an independent-minded square to Uranus. Her influential and controlling 10th house Pluto was in a creative Water Grand Trine to Uranus and Venus Mercury in Scorpio; and her Pluto was also in a fearsome square to Saturn Mars Jupiter and widely square Moon in Libra. She was a curious mix of masochistic and submissive with a suppressed Pluto square Mars – as well as freedom-loving. As she matured and empowered herself quite a force to be reckoned with.  Her Venus Mercury were square Neptune.

Picasso, 25 October 1881 11.15 pm Malaga, Spain,  had a Sagittarius Moon to chime with her Sun, and his Scorpio Sun resonated with her Venus.  But he had a heavyweight, ultra-stubborn chart with a stellium in Taurus in his 10th stretching from Saturn Neptune to a pushily-confident Jupiter Pluto conjunction. His Saturn Neptune was trine Uranus and sextile a 12th house Mars in Cancer.

 Her need not be be bullied and ultimately to stay in control Pluto clashed with his Mars so no surprises there was abuse in their relationship. His Midheaven, Saturn, Neptune fell in her 8th so there would be a deep connection, not easy but initially beyond her conscious power to resist or understand.

  Their relationship chart had a composite New Moon which suggest a connection where each felt more whole when they were together; but the composite Sun was in a power-struggling quincunx to Pluto.  The synastry is more descriptive of their love hate match.

  Two of his other mistresses had fairly similar placings. Doris Maar, 22 November 1907 2.30am Paris and Marie Therese Walter, 13 July 1909 12 noon Le Perreux sur Marne.  

  Both of them had marked Mars Pluto aspects in their charts – used to being dominated and bullied since childhood and unable to escape the old pattern. Both of them had Piscasso’s Taurus stellium falling in their respective 8th houses so an even more anchored-in-the-unconscious bond than Gilot’s.

  Maar had a Fixed Scorpio Sun square Mars in Aquarius which was overwhelmed by his pushy Jupiter Pluto in Taurus; and his Mars fell in her 10th was conjunct her Neptune and opposition her Uranus for a raggedy interface.

 Walter was a Sun Cancer trine Mars with her Mars square Pluto; and a Sun opposition Uranus square Saturn in Aries – highly-strung, low in self-esteem.

  Two things would be a saving grace for Gilot – one was her maverick Mutable Sun square Uranus, which disliked compromise. The other was her Pluto in the 10th, hint of a possessive and controlling mother which would initially make it easy for her to slot into the same kind of submissive relationship but as she matured she would turn it round and become more resistant to being tramped under foot and used as a pawn.  

William Blake – raging against a sea of troubles

William Blake, the 19th century visionary writer and artist is such an influential giant in literary and artistic circles it is astonishing he was regarded so negatively during his life. One review of his illustrations called them a display of “nonsense, unintelligibleness and egregious vanity.” His obituary in the Literary Chronicle described him as “one of those ingenious persons … whose eccentricities were still more remarkable than their professional abilities.” Since his death, his influence and stature have risen to establish him amongst the greats.

  He was born 28 November 1757 7.45pm (from memory) London, was home educated, with the Bible having a profound influence on him, began writing at an early age, claiming to have had his first vision, of a tree full of angels when he was 10. His visions had a lasting effect on his art and writings. He trained as an engraver and later produced his own illustrations.

 He was an enthusiastic Sun Jupiter in Sagittarius in the 5th house on this birth time. Though with a life filled with visions I’d have expected a stronger 8th house so the timing may be out. His Jupiter would give him the vision, ideals and enthusiasm to keep going even in the face of little appreciation.  What may have held him back in his lifetime was an afflicted Mars in Leo which was conjunct Neptune, trine Pluto, opposition Saturn and on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Uranus sextile Venus in Capricorn.

  Mars in Leo is flamboyant but blocked by the Saturn opposition it would not be ego-supportive. Mars Pluto tends to accompany a lifetime of frustrations, milder since in trine than a hard aspect, but still in operation. A Yod focal point Mars can be self-defeating and being out-of-tune with himself, he’d also present an awkward face to his environment.  

  His Leo North Node does point to him being a trailblazer but looking to his harmonics to explore why he made so little headway in his life he did have an exceptionally strong 8th Harmonic –

8: A fated number. “Karmic debt”. Soul wounds, bad luck or loss may follow this number, which also gives an abundance of strength and stubbornness in the face of difficulties. The road to success is often bumpy and hard, and if it comes easy, or at all, it will not necessarily bring happiness.

Notable also are his 20th harmonic and 13th.

  20: A major upheaval that leads to an awakening which changes the ambitions, ideals, goals or plans for one’s life. Not a good material number, but is considered good for spiritual development. Delays and obstacles.

13: Upheaval, change and rebirth. This number is associated with exploration, genius and breaking with the orthodox. It warns against the unknown and the unexpected. It requires adaptation to change to be successful.

 He also had marked leaving-a-legacy, immortality 17H; a creative 5H; and global-name 22nd.

[Interesting, not the chart I would have expected with such a raging Mars – and I would question the birth time.]

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.”

― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

“He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”

― William Blake

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”

― William Blake

“I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe;

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water’d it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears;

And I sunnéd it with smiles

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright;

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole,

When the night had veil’d the pole:

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.”

― William Blake, Songs of Experience

Saudi Arabia and sport – money trumps morals ++ Monahan, McIlroy

 Golf enthusiasts are outraged and scathing about the PGA selling out to the Saudi Investment Fund for a reputed $3 billion and merging with the breakaway LIV Golf whom until recently they were castigating as renegade mercenaries complicit in the legitimising of a bloodthirsty Saudi regime. The PGA bashed the Saudis constantly, citing their human rights abuses, execution of gays, the Jamal Khashoggi murder, and how they they bankrolled 9/11. And now they have been bought. Donald Trump has hailed it as a “big, beautiful and glamorous deal”.

   This latest move underscores how Saudi Arabia has muscled into global sports through its use of oil-funded state finances. There are reports they are seeking to lure top footballers and already own Premier League side Newcastle United in England.

  Sportswashing is only a small segment of the push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to become a global lynchpin – doing deals with Israel and Qatar, bringing Assad in from the cold, cooling tensions with Iran, repairing relations with the USA, hosting Zelensky at the Jeddah Arab League amid friction between Riyadh and Moscow over oil production cuts. And cosying up to China, signing a crude oil deal with them. 

  There is no doubt MbS has made a difference since taking over in 2017. In 2022 Saudi Arabia was recorded as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, outperforming China, India, Indonesia and South Korea, as well as the struggling G7 and other major emerging economies. Though time will tell whether his over confidence will trip up with his plans for a trillion-dollar zero-carbon desert city of the future called Neom, opening 2045. It will include powerful surveillance technology provided by China – an Orwellian nightmare.

   Saudi Arabia, 15 January 1902, has come through the transformational tr Pluto conjunct its Sun Jupiter in Capricorn in 2020/21 and emerged in good economic shape though with a worsening humanitarian record. Tr Neptune conjunct the Pisces Moon this year suggests the cause of women will not be furthered. Where the country runs into catastrophic problems will be around 2029/30 as the Solar Arc Mars is conjunct Pluto and tr Pluto is conjunct the Mars – high-risk, trapped.

  Mohammed bin Salman, 31 August 1985, a super-ambitious Sun Virgo trine Neptune sextile Pluto, also has a control-freak, pushily confident Pluto on the point of a Fixed T Square to Jupiter opposition Venus. Stubborn, self-assured, assumes rules don’t apply to him.

  Not everything in his kingdom will be plain sailing since he has tr Uranus upending his Mars and Mercury in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio from now through this July/August, on and off into 2024 – which will be accident-prone, aggravating, and may prompt him into reckless decisions.  He also has a couple of unhelpful Solar Arcs approaching, His SA Mars is square his Neptune this year and SA Saturn conjunct his Neptune in 2024. His Neptune is visionary, fuels his megalomania, but may trip him up through the next two years.

  Back in the land of the fairways – golfer Greg Norman who was castigated for heading LIV when it launched appears not to be involved in this merger which fits with unhappy experiences littering his chart see previous post  13 February 2023.

  PGA Golf, 2 December 1929, fittingly enough a sporty Sagittarius with Sun conjunct Mars and Mercury opposition Jupiter square Neptune in Virgo – is looking less than enthusiastic this year and next with tr Saturn moving round its Mutable T Square. With Solar Arc Neptune conjunct its Sun Mars in 18 months and Solar Arc Saturn conjunct its Uranus in 2025 alongside tr Neptune square its Saturn. Into a swamp basically.

Add On: Jay Monahan, the PGA chief who brokered the deal, has faced criticism of being a hypocrite and may not survive players’ anger. Born 7 May 1970, he’s a stubborn, money-minded Sun, Saturn, Mercury in Taurus. He’s looking upbeat with tr Pluto square his Jupiter this year into 2024 but is running into a deadlock or a cul-de-sac in 2024 with his Solar Arc Pluto opposition his Sun.

Golfer  Rory McIlroy, 4 May 1989, whose moral stance against the Saudi LIV which allegedly cost him $300 million, is another Sun Taurus. He’s looking emotionally on edge with tr Uranus conjunct his Venus in Taurus at the moment as well as a career-setback and aggravating Jupiter/Saturn midpoint upset.  But he will forge ahead successfully in 2024/25.