THE EU, ISRAEL and MORE

THE EU: ECONOMIC RENEWAL and POLITICAL SLOW DEATH?

 In 2024 Neptune will begin a series of 5 hard aspects to the Angles of the EU (1958) chart. At the same time, Pluto will begin a series of 5 squares to the EU (1993) chart. Big change is on the way, though it is likely to be slow, as is the way with large institutions.

The 1958 chart is the for EEC, whose emphasis was economic: this is expressed in 8^th House Moon in Taurus: the shared (8^th) wealth (Taurus) of its member countries (Moon).

The 1993 chart arose out of the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, which began the process of political union.

An ex-EU President expressed the view some years ago that the EU had lost its mojo. Many of us can probably remember the heady years of Jacques Delors, driving through change, a time of soaring ambition.

The EEC Angles have shown themselves to be sensitive to transits: Pluto’s hard-aspecting of them in 2008 triggered the Greek debt crisis the following year, the EU’s first major crisis. So the coming transit from Neptune could involve crises along the way. They are likely to start from without (Neptune on the Desc). The 2008 Pluto transit was on the IC, and it was very much an internal financial stability crisis.

Germany, the driver of the EU, has been drifting. Its Green energy policy has backfired, due to its naïve reliance on Russian gas, and it has been forced to use coal again. It may be the end of its liberal “let’s be nice to Russia” and “let’s allow in as many refugees as want to come era.” Most significantly, its business base is being undercut by China. Neptune on the Desc of the EEC chart next year could therefore signify the imposition of trade barriers with China, to a level comparable to the US. Germany has Pluto coming up to conjoin its Desc/NNode in the next few years, which has a similar message.

So economic renewal, with a protectionist flavour, is a likely outcome of the Neptune transit to the EEC chart. The transit will conclude in Jan 2026 with a Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 1 Aries, a new vision. There may be drift until then, but this conjunction unmistakeably speaks of action, perhaps driven by events. Much as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 caused huge event-driven change, as Covid spread. The outer planets on their own can be an inner alchemy, change-in-waiting, but Saturn forces outcomes.

What of the political union? What stands out for me in this chart in the unaspected Sun in Scorpio in the 4^th. The leadership is hidden, it does not communicate itself. This is observable. Which of us has ever known much about the leaders? The goals too are hidden: we all know about ‘ever-closer union’, but what that means has never been made explicit. Perhaps the most visible result of this inability to connect has been Brexit. The EU really needs to learn from that if it wants to thrive as a political union. Why should people want their respective countries to cede more and more power to a body they have little personal connection with, and does not say what its ultimate goals are? It is not how democracy works. And rightly so.

The sign of Scorpio, along with the unaspectedness of the Sun, suggests an arrogant hanging onto power for its own sake.

Pluto first squares the EU MC (the governing bodies), and then moves on to square the EU Sun (the leadership itself and its goals) in about 4 years time. I think the current power base will come apart, driven by the democratic urge of Pluto in Aquarius. Who knows how the EU will reshape itself? Political union has always seemed somewhat improbable to me, given how culturally different the member countries are. Look at the US and its very similar states, which only united by a whisker in 1776. Certainly the free trade area will be maintained, because that is a win for everybody. The forward drive to political union has been gone for some years now. It seems unlikely to be revived. A slow death is in that case perfectly possible, even likely. If you're not going forwards, you are going backwards. Maybe even the Euro, which benefits Germany at the expense of the less prosperous members, will also go. 

All of which could well lead to an application from the UK to rejoin 😊 Neptune will start hard-aspecting the UK Sun and Angles in just a few years: I reckon there could be political rumblings around this from 2026 onwards, driven by a Labour government.

 

VENUS IN VIRGO

Venus has recently entered Virgo. In traditional astrology it's not so good, she is in her fall. But if you know how to work these things - and it can take a bit of self-knowledge to do so - there is bounty to be had. In this case, it is the inner joy to be found when we stop reaching after sense pleasures. It is not a negative, anything but. The joy has the form of a nature goddess. Or, if you like, a renaissance virgin mary. Venus' love here is for both nature and the divine.

 

 

ISRAEL'S TRANSITING PLUTO

Pluto is stationing, at the end of a period in which it has hard-aspected all of Israel's Angles. Mars has been in an applying square to Pluto as the country has come under attack. In recent years, the country has become a regional superpower, both militarily and economically, due to the free-market reforms of its leader Netanyahu. The Pluto transits to all 4 Angles tell us that the country is being slowly re-born in fundamental ways. We can therefore expect a far-reaching military response against the Palestinians, that does not allow for a return to the previous status quo. 

 

Mars is currently transiting Israel's first house: not a judicious time to attack her. Watch Israel go from strength to strength in the coming years as Pluto goes on to oppose natal Moon, Pluto and Saturn. This is not to support or condemn Israel: it is simply an attempt at Realastrology.

 

 

THE TIME OF THE SUPERHERO

Mars will shortly enter Scorpio. With this placement natally, you may be like Clark Kent: you bimble around, seemingly unmotivated in your day-to-day life. And then a life or death situation arises, a dog falls in the river, and you are the one who dives in to save it. 

 

Mars will be in Scorpio until late November. It is a time to put yourself in harm's way, or rescue others from harm's way.

 

 

INITIATION

Outer planet transits are initiations. It is time for something new to be born, which belongs not to us, but to the universe. We are not alone, we are not autonomous, and nothing is personal. We live our lives in solidarity with the greater reality, with all-that-is. Neptune will drown and madden you, Pluto will abduct and dismember you. And it can go on for years.

Afterwards you will feel thankful through gritted teeth, for you would never have wished all that on yourself. But it's not about what we want. It's about what we have to do. That gives meaning, though not necessarily happiness. It is meaning we get out of bed for.

 

 

BUILDING THE EGREGORE

Astrology has ancient egregore, the power that builds over time from collective use. It is the power of tradition. That is why astrology works even formalistically, when you just follow the rules of interpretation. You are benefitting from the egregore. You contribute to the egregore when you use the rules imaginatively, when you work them so that meaning appears to you from within.

 

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Aquarius is the archetype of the noble human. They may chunter on in a detached, rational way, but don't be misled: there is a deep soulfulness behind it. It is the water they bear.

 

 

DON'T TAKE ASTROLOGY LITERALLY

Astrology began with the primordial instinct that we are part of heaven and earth, which can show us who we are and how to live. Don't take astrology literally. Dance lightly around its extensive formal knowledge. Learn as much of it as you need, but don't think that makes you an astrologer. The work comes in digging for concrete meaning within the symbols. That is the creative part, that changes you and enchants the universe for your client. 

 

 

Don't take anything literally, even the world itself. Dance around that too. It is real, and yet mind-created. Your precious self also, that you will fight tooth and claw to preserve. That isn't literal either, and in hanging loose to that, you open yourself to the universe. And that is what astrology is there to teach us.

 

 

PLUTO TRANSIT

We betray ourselves. Somewhere we know we are ignoring a voice, and eventually it destroys us: and then slowly we learn to listen, and we will never not listen again. It is the voice that matters most, the inner guide that will never let us down. We become like the Ancient Mariner.

 

THE ELEMENT OF AIR

The Air signs are the only ones that do not have animal symbols. Two of them have humans - Gemini and Aquarius - while Libra has a thing: a pair of scales. What this most strongly suggests is that in the Air signs we move away from animal instinct and gain the ability to reflect. And that is both a strength and a weakness. The perfect example of the latter is the disenchanted universe that modern science has created, in which matter is dead. Early humans knew this was not the case, because the animal in them, which has direct knowledge, told them so.

 

Air gives us the ability to be at our most diabolical, and our most deeply human, in a way that animals cannot be. Air gives the ability to stand back and weigh up moral as well practical choices. People find it incredibly difficult to step back from their beliefs and examine them, as any argument shows. But that ability is also what makes us most distinctively human. 

 

Honesty and humility are the moral qualities we need when using Air to gain wisdom. Typically, we misuse that Element in order to to rationalise, to justify what it is we want to believe and to do. And we don't even know we're doing it most of the time.

 

The Elements go in a cycle: Fire, Earth, Air and Water, which repeats 3 times as we circle the zodiac. Fire is the first spark of life, the new vision, that is then embodied, incarnated in Earth. Then in Air we cast our eye at the world around us and consider it. That perspective then needs integrating with the animal, so everything dissolves back into Water, out of which a new being, carrying the wisdom of the previous cycle, can be born.

SATURN-PLUTO AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 2020 took place at 23 Capricorn, a degree away from the Russian Saturn at 24 Capricorn. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 Feb this year, Mars was at 22 Capricorn. This links that war to the central astrological event of our time.

The chart I am using for Russia is for 12 June 1990 (time approximate), when the Russian parliament declared the sovereignty of the Russian Republic within the USSR (From Nick Campion’s Book of World Horoscopes.).

Note the unaspected Sun and Saturn. The leader, and the structures of authority, are not connected either to each other or to the people. That is quite something. It’s almost an indictment for a country to have a chart like that. By definition the chart reflects the circumstances of the country’s birth, in this case when communism was collapsing and the USSR was breaking up. It was a seizure of sovereignty, led by Boris Yeltsin, without, it seemed, much forethought as to what came next. Russia gradually descended into chaos under Yeltsin.

Born 1 Feb 1931, Yeltsin had the Saturn-Uranus hard aspect that often characterises crisis leaders. Saturn is the status quo, Uranus is its disruption, and the hard aspect offers its resolution under a new paradigm. But that doesn’t mean they are good ‘peacetime’ leaders. Boris Johnson, who has the opposition, is a case in point: he performs well when there is a crisis like Brexit or Covid or the Ukraine war, but outside of that he creates needless trouble for himself. Churchill also had Saturn-Uranus in hard aspect, and the same kind of temperament.

So the lack of structure, combined with Yeltsin’s temperament, left a hole for an authoritarian leader to step in – which is what Russia is used to anyway, from the Tsars onwards. It was a return to type.

Saturn in Capricorn in the 4^th House shows a desire for the traditional (Capricorn) homeland (4^th House), which includes a number of its bordering countries, including Ukraine. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 (which was also the modern Russia’s 1^st Saturn Return) activated this unaspected Saturn in a big way. The invasion of Ukraine has probably been brewing since that time, and then catalysed when Mars hit that point.

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We do not have a birth time for Putin (7th Oct 1952), but this year Neptune will be within a degree of squaring his foreign-adventuring Mars at 26 Sagittarius. That is not a good time for him to start a war. It might be a good time for psychonautic adventures, Neptune likes that. But in this world, Neptune is liable to swamp you down. Just as happened to the US when it invaded Iraq in the run-up to a Saturn-Neptune opposition, and found itself bogged down in the succeeding years.

Russia itself has Neptune hard-aspecting its Angles this year and next (the chart is approximate, but it is probably not far off.) So while Putin will be personally floundering through the amount he has staked on his Mars, Russia herself will be floundering. This could go on for some years, because Putin will not be easy to depose. In 4 years, however, Pluto will conjoin the Russian Moon (the people) in the revolutionary sign of Aquarius. Watch this space!

It is interesting that the EU has the same Angles, a few degrees on, as Russia, so the EU is about to undergo the Neptune transit that Russia is currently undergoing. It ties together the destiny of these two superpowers (one military, the other economic.)

The EU has had a foretaste of its own Neptune maddening (Pluto abducts and dismembers; Neptune maddens and drowns) via Brexit, this event that made no sense to many people. It seemed mad at the time, but astrologically it foreshadows, or has catalysed, a wider unravelling, and possibly an eventual coming together in a new way, within the EU. The old paradigm, symbolised by Jacques Delors and his heady drive towards European integration, is already dying. Europe has lost its Mojo, but nothing has yet come in to replace it.

Whatever does replace it will be partly shaped by what is happening now. Provoked by Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, Europe and NATO are coming together as they haven’t for a long time. Pluto will begin to hard aspect the fixed Angles of NATO in a couple of years, suggesting perhaps a re-empowerment in the face of renewed Russian aggression.

The Angles in a personal chart are our main points of connection to life, they ground the cosmic drama of the planets in their signs. And the same with a country. So when Pluto or Neptune, the big transformers, hard aspect all the Angles within a short time, you get a profound change in many aspects of the life of the person or the country. And we will see this with Russia, the EU and NATO in the coming years. What is happening now with Ukraine, and Brexit before that, are just the start.

But back to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, the emerging significance of which is the main theme of this article. The last time this conjunction occurred in Capricorn was in 1518, 3 months after Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door in Wittenberg and began the Protestant Revolution, which challenged the pan-European power of the day, the Catholic Church. In this sign of Capricorn and under this conjunction, governing structures either gain in power, or lose power, in a major way.

The Ukraine War Mars and its connection to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction tells us that it is a very significant war, that will play a large part in reshaping the governing structures, and balances of power, across Europe and into Russia.

A month in, and it is clear the war is not going Russia’s way in the way she wanted it to. Russia may yet prevail, but she is getting bogged down (Neptune on her Angles), and has become a pariah state in the process. Her international standing has plummeted. The war was intended to be a display of Russian power, but it has had the opposite result. She may gain a bit of territory in the process, but the cost will be huge.

So we are seeing a diminished Russia, and an enhanced USA/Europe as part of the Saturn-Pluto power restructuring. It is NATO, rather than the EU, that is the unifying body, bridging as it does the USA, the EU, the UK and other European countries, including three that were formerly within the USSR.

I don’t think Russia can survive in its present form, due to the strength of its transits: Neptune has just finished squaring the Sun (the leader, who has just made a bad move), then on to the Angles, then Pluto conjunct Moon.

We could maybe say that the Saturn-Pluto conjunction will come to be seen as the end of the second Cold War that has come about between Russia and the West, with Russia the loser again. The Saturn Return, which she had in 2019/20, is a time to ‘grow-up’, in this case as a nation. A time to grow up from being a gangster state with almost arbitrary rule, trying to steal power by encroaching on its neighbours, to one that is governed by law and prepared to earn, rather than attempting to steal, its power in the world.

It is easy to forget that we live in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. We forget this because it is not news. Neither peace nor prosperity are news, whereas localised wars and poverty are news. This is the context in which we need to see the Ukraine War. It is merely local, albeit of huge political significance.

The fact of this prolonged peace on a world scale says to me that we are getting something right. As does the prosperity. There are considerable grounds for optimism about the future of humanity, climate alarmists and the XR death-cult notwithstanding. Peace can only come about when countries co-operate. We have been co-operating to a sufficient degree for a long time now to prevent major wars. The Ukraine crisis is seeing a heightened co-operation by most of the major powers, and a diminution of the power that does not want peace, Russia.

So what I am saying is that the international power restructuring that is Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn may well be towards increased peace and co-operation.

The pandemic preceding the Ukraine War, which began almost with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, was also an international, indeed a worldwide, event. It was felt to be a world problem, and was dealt with in similar ways across the globe. Our interconnectedness was palpable, as new variants of the virus started in one country and spread rapidly across the world. Within a sort time, vaccines were available to most of humanity, again an international effort.

So you could say that Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn has been creating another level of globalisation, just as Pluto (wealth) in Sagittarius (foreign parts) described the economic globalisation that gathered pace in that period, in which our economic fortunes became ever more closely tied together.

Russia’s behaviour is showing the West what it is not prepared to tolerate. We have been ruthless in imposing economic sanctions to a level never seen before, paralysing Russia’s economy (as disruptor Uranus crosses and disempowers her 8^th House Venus, ruler of her 2^nd House of wealth, and opposite 2^nd House Pluto.) Russia may have to default, she is being brought economically to her knees. Yet she is militarily a superpower.

Putin can only remain in power while there is sufficient collective will for him to do so. Leaders inevitably reflect the desires of a large section of the population. But national pride can only take you so far. The people also need food on their plates, and they hunger for the standard of living seen in their near neighbours. It was bankruptcy that brought down the communist Russian empire, it may be the same for the gangster state that is modern Russia. It may be a slow Neptunian collapse, but there is nevertheless a new world order when a superpower collapses.

Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn then, may signify the new world order brought about by the slow collapse of Russia, along with the closer international political and humanitarian ties that Russia’s war and Covid respectively are engendering.

And – not mentioned so far – the reining in of the multinationals, who gained enormously in power during the Pluto in Sag economic globalisation, such that they became in many ways answerable to no country, and often paid little or no tax. That has begun to change under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn: the bringing of proper governmental oversight to the wild west of the big tech industries. That process too has been its own globalisation, as many countries signed up to an agreement forcing the corporations to pay 15% tax. Yeah, only 15%. But it is a significant start.

Inequality soared as Pluto entered Capricorn under the 2009 economic crisis. Inequality soared again under the Covid economic crisis. Capricorn is a sign of hierarchy, and this has so far been an unfortunate outcome (bringing in a non-astrological value judgement) of Pluto’s transit through this sign. Admittedly, much of the increase in wealth is just on paper, it is asset inflation brought about by quantitative easing: house prices have gone up, and if you have a large house in London, your wealth will have gone up by what seems a lot. But you still own just one large house, which you live in. However, there remain real issues.

Hierarchy is inevitable, as realistic Capricorn, which values competence, recognises. But too much creates civil unrest. Humans do not like unfairness, and will not tolerate it beyond a certain point, even if they have enough food on the table. Whether our Saturn-Pluto era will see an addressing of this issue, or a hardening of it, remains to be seen.

THE DREAM OF ROME

This book, The Dream of Rome, was published in 2006, as the author’s Uranus Opposition completed, and as Pluto finished opposing his Mercury and was moving on to oppose his Sun (then MC). So it was a pivotal time in Johnson’s life, even though his public persona may not have revealed that. With Moon in Scorpio, Johnson is a very private, as well as public, man (revealed, perhaps, in the photo on the cover of the book.)

Notice how his Mercury is unaspected: that means that on the one hand he comes out with things best not said, he doesn’t find it easy to edit himself. But on the other, he will say things that need saying that nobody else will say. Gemini and its relation with the truth, an interesting area. Truth as well as lies, people often only see one half of this. Since becoming PM, and with his very weighty Solar Return for this year (Moon-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 10th House Capricorn) he has become more considered and responsible in what he says,

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So 2006 was a time when Johnson’s underlying beliefs were becoming more formed, and giving him more genuine strength and gravitas: this is reflected in the sign of transiting Pluto (Sagittarius) and the natal House of Mercury and the Sun (the 9th).

The book analyses what it was that made the Roman Empire work, and compares it to the EU, which he neither damns nor extols. He concludes with a defence of Islam (another Pluto in Sag theme), which he says is no more dark and irrational - our historic fear - than Christianity was when it presided over Europe. With a great-grandfather who was a Muslim Turk, he makes the case for Turkey being allowed into the EU.

I recently read this author's book on the character of Churchill, another politician-writer. Johnson, a journalist, is always very readable. Whether or not you agree with Johnson's politics - and as with any politician, we will agree with some things and not others - there is no denying that he is a complex, thoughtful guy who we will gradually get to know. It can be quite exasperating when people try to reduce Johnson to one or the other of his past follies, which he seems to have largely put behind him since becoming PM.

When the referendum was called in early 2016, Pluto was just finishing opposing Johnson’s MC. A weighty time for him, in which he had to consider his vocation (MC). Remember how it took him some time to decide which side he was on. So many people said it was because he was weighing up what would advantage him personally. There is some truth in that, I am sure: as Johnson says in his book on Churchill, every politician is a mixture of idealism and being self-serving, and that is where the point of interest in them lies.

But what no-one seemed to consider is that maybe Johnson delayed because he was genuinely thinking about it. You sense a strong Europhilia in Johnson in his book, but not so much love for the EU. Like a good Gemini, he sees both sides, he is not rabid in any of his views in my opinion. And as I said earlier, you may not agree with his conclusions, but there is no denying his thoughtfulness, and the knowledge he brings to it, which most of us could not match. Compare this to the ignoramus Trump, or even to Tony Blair, having to acquaint himself with the Koran in the run-up to the Iraq War. We have an educated leader, as we ought.

A FUTURE PERSPECTIVE ON BREXIT

The below chart for Northern Ireland (based on the UK 1922 chart, under which a separate Northern Ireland came into existence) was hugely sensitive to transits around the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. At the time, Neptune was conjoining the Midheaven and Pluto the Desc. It doesn't get stronger than that. 

At the moment, Neptune is squaring the NI Sun, and Pluto is opposite its Moon. So there is huge inner change going on, even though it looks outwardly the same. And these inner changes are setting the scene for Pluto crossing the Capricorn MC in a few years time. The emphasis with Angles, as our points of connection to the world, is outward. Capricorn concerns boundaries, and these were made more porous (with Eire) in 1998 as Neptune crossed.

Pluto crossing (exactly in 2023) sounds to me like an irrevocable and permanent change. And Catholics could be in the majority as soon as 2021 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43823506) So this looks to me like a United Ireland sooner than we think, currently being energised by the issue around the Brexit backstop and the DUP fears around anything which might lead to unification.

And then there is the EU. I use the EEC (see below) chart for when the organisation came into practical existence. For the people/individual countries (Moon), the EU is essentially a shared (8th House) economic (Taurus) institution. It is the political aims that have caused the problem, with their threat to national sovereignties. I am NOT criticising those aims, just trying to observe. In 2020, Uranus will conjoin the EU Moon. Brexit has electrified and unsettled EU countries, and this theme will continue for 2 more years. Uranus breaks up the landscape, the old certainties, allowing for deeper changes to follow in its wake.

In 5 years time, Neptune will hard aspect all the Angles of the EU. You cannot hang on rigidly to old ways of doing things under Neptune, for they dissolve beneath your feet. It will be an issue of the soul (Neptune) of the EU and how it manifests practically (Angles). It seems to me that because the individual countries regard the union as essentially economic (Moon in Taurus in the 8th), we will see a dissolving, or a limit, to the aspiration for political union (which is unlimited, 'ever closer', in the founding document, the Treaty of Rome). 

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This will allow the UK to normalise its relations to the EU, particularly as the hard border in Ireland will no longer be an issue, Ireland being in the process of re-uniting.

The UK, as the 2nd biggest economy in the EU, and Germany's biggest EU trading partner, is too big too ignore. Historically, I think Brexit will be seen as the hugely disruptive event that triggered a limit to the EU's political aspirations, in the interests of economic partnerships.

Saturn-Pluto and the UK's Ornery Mood

So the big astrological event for the UK in the next couple of years will be Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn opposite the UK Moon. This transit will also be part of the Brexit chart next year.

Economically, I think one meaning of this conjunction is the power (Pluto) of the big corporations (Saturn/Capricorn), and the struggle by national governments (Saturn/Capricorn) to contain these transnational beasts. Trump's taking aim at Amazon is a good example. The UK, now on its own, will be more vulnerable to these corporations: do what we say, or we'll take our business elsewhere. That may also mean we become a haven for them. But it may not be quite as simple as that.

Because politically, the UK is ornery right now. We were told to vote remain, and did the opposite. We were told to increase Theresa May's majority, and we did the opposite. And in both cases there was a desire for change. By the older generation and by the unemployed in the EU referendum. And by the young people who voted Corbyn in the recent general election. 

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Either way, we are pissed and we want something different. Add to that the Remainers who are pissed like nothing you have ever seen..... 

I think that politically, leaving the EU is going to be comparable to the end of WWII, when a radical government was voted in. People will feel grateful to Theresa May for steering us through troubled water, her enactment of a decision she did not vote for. But she will be out on her ear at the next election.

Right now, we are in the stormy unclear waters that you get in the middle of a Pluto transit. But underneath that is a deep desire for change, coming from all sides, as yet inarticulate, but ready to burst forth as we leave the EU harbour. Under the last Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door and began the Protestant Revolution. Saturn-Pluto is the destruction (Pluto) of the establishment (Saturn), as well as its empowerment.

So watch this space. I think soon after we formally leave the EU next year, Theresa May will find her position as leader untenable. It's going to be a hell of a general election, there is so much waiting to be unleashed from all sides. And least of all will we want to be bossed around by the likes of Amazon and Google and Facebook. We are so not in the mood. And it may set a precedent for other countries.

THE EYES OF CALIGULA AND THE LIPS OF MARILYN MONROE

President Giscard D’Estaing is alleged to have said of Margaret Thatcher that he did not like her, because she was not a man and not a woman. And President Mitterand said that she had the "eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe."

Politics is essentially a warrior culture and, if they are to succeed, it often seems to require women to de-humanise themselves. The same could be said of men, but it is more their kind of world, they seem to need to sacrifice less of who they are.

Theresa May is less ideologically driven than Margaret Thatcher, but there is still the feeling that one is not dealing with a complete human being. She is well known for not being interested in becoming friends with her colleagues. She has a narrow determination and ruthlessness. And there is the lipstick and leopardskin shoes. Caligula and Monroe. Is it off limits to raise the fact that she hasn’t had children?

I’ve been interested by her retrograde Mars in Pisces. On the face of it, it seems about the least effective placement for Mars. And that seems to be reflected in the election campaign she has run. She has stumbled, whereas Corbyn has shone.

THERESA MAY

And then I thought that Pisces is a bit like Virgo, it needs to be in service, it needs to be told what to do, then it becomes effective. May was Home Secretary for 6 years, she had a clearly defined job to do, and she got on with it. As Prime Minister, she has also had a clearly defined job, as she sees it, which is Brexit. She thought she could make the election campaign Presidential and all about Brexit. But she is not Presidential, and people have other concerns apart from Brexit. And Theresa May, with her Mars in Pisces, is not equal to the type of leadership that requires. She is essentially an administrator who happens to have found herself as PM. Venus, the planet of popularity, also plays a part. May has Venus in square to Saturn, which is not naturally appealing. Popularity for this placement has to be earned. So she may become more popular over time, as she takes us through Brexit.

UK Chart

Saturn is about to hard aspect the Sun, Moon and Angles of the UK chart, and we are in the middle of Pluto opposing our Cancer Moon. This is a difficult time, and the security of the country is an issue. We are therefore more likely to see a conservative win in the election.

The British, however, don’t like the sense that they are being told what to do (Uranus Rising). That is one reason we voted Leave, because the government wanted us to vote Remain. And it could be the same with this election: it has been held so that the Tories can increase their majority, and the public may well turn round and say well we’re not giving you that.

Boris Johnson was leader-in-waiting for some years under David Cameron as PM. And his star was rising. He was Mayor of London for 8 years, and became cheerleader-in-chief for the Tory party. All this as Pluto hard-aspected his Sun and Angles, propelling him into power. But those transits came to an end, and I predicted that his rise was over. Now he has Saturn hard-aspecting his Sun and, over the next couple of years, his Angles. This is Boris learning some discipline – growing up a bit, if you like. As Theresa May said pointedly at her first cabinet meeting, “Politics is not a game.”

BORIS JOHNSON

But in about 5 years, when Neptune starts to hard-aspect his Sun and Angles, Boris will have another chance, if he wishes to take it. The transits will continue for a good 10 years after that. Pluto will also square his Moon, ruler of his MC. So here is my prediction: Boris will take over from Theresa May after the 2022 election, and will eventually be PM.

But that is if he survives the next couple of years: Uranus is about to start opposing his Scorpio Moon, which rules his MC. Being Boris, there may be things he has done that we don’t know about, but which will come back and get him. He may even be being blackmailed as we speak. Or he will do something which, even for Boris, proves a step too far, and we will see a sudden fall. Boris natally has Eris opposite his Asc and square his MC. It is almost his destiny to be the trickster for the collective. Like the role he played in promoting the Leave vote, even though he wasn’t sure which side he was on – which was also his trickster Sun sign, Gemini. And then being stabbed in the back when he tried to become leader.

Boris has a role to play, and the conventional astrology says he could easily be the leader after May. But there’s this other tricksy thing with him that makes it a bit harder to predict.