The Astrology Blog 6 July 2020
All times in BST
“Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions on what should happen, not what shouldn’t.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s the power of using your voice.”
Michelle Obama
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Michelle_Obama
MERCURY RETROGRADE UNTIL THE WEEKEND
It’s suspiciously quiet. The main activity of the week is from Mercury, still retrograde until the weekend, in the sign of Cancer. In addition to the usual troublemaking problems beloved by Mercury’s times of looping backwards this particular combination of retrograde planet/sign also carries the hallmarks of secrecy, avoidance, evasiveness, word twisting and anything else you can think of that might be described by the sideways movement of the mute Crab. Ask Ghislaine Maxwell. More on that and Prince Andrew too in a while. Or look at the BBC news report of Donald Trump’s 4 July speech –
Despite a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases, Mr Trump touted the country’s “progress” against the Covid-19 disease… the president made no reference to the nearly 130,000 US deaths linked to the pandemic. He said the US had tested almost 40 million people, adding that 99% of coronavirus cases were “totally harmless” – a claim for which he gave no evidence.
They stopped short of saying that he was lying or twisting the facts or, worse, believing his own lies and getting millions of Americans to believe them too. But the inference is obvious. In your own life be alive to who might be selling you their own version of the truth or who/what has you going around in small circles. The end of the week will be a time of untwisting.
Back to more personal things domestic concerns have been very much in evidence, symbolically appropriate as Cancer rules the 4th House of home, family and property. In turn the sign of Cancer is ruled by the Moon and we’ve just had the third of three Eclipses, which occur at the times of New or Full Moons when one body is overshadowing another or moving in-between the other two. I’ve had several clients over the last few weeks who’ve all got complicated or protracted property matters going on, mostly involving one person buying out another, valuation nightmares or just knowing that they’re living in the wrong place.
I’m living in the right place, that much is clear, but my own story from these last few days involves the property, or rather the garden. Mercury is retrograde in a water sign and I have a well, which is covered with a huge hinged wooden lid, and the first thing I did when I moved in was buy a padlock! Wells give me the heebie-jeebies (as a child I was held up to look down one and I can still remember that moment of absolute terror!) and the thought of some visiting child lifting the lid out of curiosity was enough to keep me awake at night. Mercury retrograde in Cancer is in itself a powerful showing for recalling childhood experiences or understanding early emotional imprinting.
I noticed in the middle of last week that the screws had all come out of the hinge brackets and then on Friday evening I noticed Lola by the well – the suspiciously quiet mood had started – seemingly fixated on something. I went to investigate, fervently hoping it wasn’t a snake, and found that she was eating the wooden lid. It was completely rotten and she was steadily taking it apart chunk by chunk. She was about five minutes away from creating a hole that she could have climbed into. Needless to say I freaked out. The well is now encircled with high, tough metal fencing and a new lid has been ordered.
The garden is ring-fenced, a joy for dog owners. The sign of Cancer is like ring-fencing, in the encircling and protective sense, or in the smother love sense, as shown in the glyph –
On Saturday evening both dogs started barking and, yet again out to investigate, a small black dog had appeared at the gate. I have a feeling that Lola might be coming into a season as she’s a rescue dog and hasn’t yet been spayed. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be necessary… I turned the garden hose on the visitor and he scarpered, barely splashed, but then ten minutes later he was back – only this time IN the garden. What??? Somehow managed to get both of my dogs inside and then watched this other dog – no collar to grab him by – to see if he would go out the same way he came in. He did. He ran away from me and squeezed through the wire fence at the back corner of the garden that has a gap of about two centimeters. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would’ve said that was impossible, but it’s now been blocked off. This was all happening under 35 degrees of heat, 100% humidity and, in my haste, no mosquito repellent. If you want an image of retro Mercury in a water sign that was me, frustrated, dismayed, pissed off and completely soaked in sweat.
AFTER THE ECLIPSES
The Moon and Cancer also rule everything to do with the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and babies. I can only hope that this little black dog hadn’t visited earlier in the day too when I was out. Otherwise, in spite of thinking that I’d left Lola in a completely safe enclosed space, she might be pregnant. Great. Not for the first time I found myself thinking that with a retrograde Mercury you can cover 99 bases but you always miss the 100th. And of course Saturday evening was the applying (in the making) Lunar Eclipse (exact Sunday morning). As I’m fond of saying during Eclipse season, what happened when the light went out? When you weren’t looking? What seeds have been sown?? Keep you posted ….
So we had the third and final Eclipse of this season of three in a row early yesterday (Sunday) morning. So this was the main “applying” (in the making) astrology for the UK’s first night out to pubs and restaurants. Seems a crazy choice to go for a Saturday opening night, and from an astrological point of view it wasn’t great timing. In the news on Sunday morning, the BBC reported that most people had acted responsibly, but the photos of heaving crowds were alarming. And – A police federation official says it is “crystal clear” drunk people cannot socially distance.
Oh really?? Well as with all Eclipse symbolism we’ll find out at a later date what really happened in terms of the extent of the damage done.
GHISLAINE MAXWELL, PRINCE ANDREW & EPSTEIN
Ghislaine Maxwell was the ninth and youngest child, and reputedly favourite, of Robert Maxwell. She was born two days before a car accident left her older brother Michael in a prolonged coma at age 15, unresponsive for several years until his death when she was six years old. One can only imagine the emotional wilderness she was born into, and she became anorexic while still a toddler.
She has no personal planets in the element of water (the emotions) but a missing element doesn’t equate into a banal interpretation of no water = no feelings, just as no air doesn’t = no intellect. Rather it shows what was missing in our formative years. At worst no water can indicate a lack of true empathy, and other astrologers have seized on that in a damning way, but it’s not our job to condemn but to understand that the astrology is telling us that this is what she experienced herself. Her Fixed T-Square of Leo Moon to Jupiter and Neptune is like the poor little rich girl, a spoilt little princess maybe, but money can’t buy you love baby. Leo Moon children need adoration of the healthy kind, not expensive gifts.
Ghislaine Maxwell is, tragically in this case, a text book example of how I was taught predictive astrology, especially by the late Derek Appleby who taught that the coming together of a progression, transits and lunation held the keys to major life events. He taught that –
- The progression is the main event
- The transit backs it up
- The lunation/minor transits fine tune the timing to within a fortnight, often less
Firstly her chart is an example of how an Eclipse “shows” after the event, and often before the next lunation, which may or may not be another Eclipse (ie the next New or Full Moon two weeks later). The two Lunar Eclipses flanked the more important Solar one at 0 Cancer. This was important for anyone with planets or Angles at this degree, the opposite degree (Capricorn) or the ones square to it (Aries/Libra)
I can’t find any recorded time of birth for her but Ghislaine has Mars at 0 Capricorn – if you do a Noon chart for her it comes out at 0.32, the Eclipse was 0.21 Cancer – conjunct the Sun 3 Capricorn:
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Ghislaine_Maxwell
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Jeffrey_Epstein
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Prince_Andrew,_Duke_of_York
She was arrested by the FBI last week 2 July, in between the last two Eclipses –
- 5 June – Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse 15 Sagittarius
- 21 June – New Moon/Solar Eclipse – 0 Cancer
- 5 July – Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse 13 Capricorn (the opposite degree at which Mercury turned retrograde)
She’s known for her longstanding friendship with Prince Andrew. She introduced Epstein to Andrew and the three of them often socialized together. There’s no time of birth for Epstein either but in terms of friendship between the three of them the synastry is mostly on the late Capricorn degrees –
- Epstein Sun is either 29 Capricorn or 0 Aquarius (Saturn’s other sign), and his Mercury 22 Capricorn
- Ghislaine Saturn 29 Capricorn (earlier in the sign Sun at 3 Capricorn, Mercury approx 9 Capricorn)
- Andrew Mars at 27 Capricorn/Venus at 29 Capricorn
Saturn tells the story. With a cycle of 29.5 years we all have our first Saturn Return on the run up to our 30th birthday. This is known as our astrological coming of age, a time of struggle and/or achievement depending on the condition of Saturn in our natal chart, but for nearly everyone it’s a time of growing up, whether it’s taking on adult responsibilities or when we first start to become aware of the march of time. It’s not uncommon to experience a first bereavement at this time, such as a grandparent, as Saturn is amongst other things the Grim Reaper.
The second Saturn Return around the age of 58/59 is often equally tough and again it’s not at all uncommon to experience bereavement at this time.
- Andrew has Saturn at 14.56 Capricorn – he experienced his Saturn Return throughout 2019 with the exact transits falling on 31 January – 12 August (Saturn retrograde) – 23 October
- Epstein committed suicide (allegedly) 10 August 2019, almost exactly on that middle date of Andrew’s Saturn Return
- Andrew stepped down from public life once his Saturn Return had drawn to a close, in November 2019, after opening up about his friendship with Epstein during a car-crash interview with Newsnight. This was aired on 16 November 2019, under retrograde Mercury in Scorpio … oops.
- Ghislaine has Saturn at 28.53 – 29.00 Capricorn (depending on time of birth, but only 7 minutes of arc difference within 24 hours as Saturn moves so slowly)
- She was arrested 2 July, at almost exactly the moment that Capricorn slid back into Capricorn – so 29.59 Capricorn – and in the middle of her Saturn Return year, the exact transit dates for her Return being (approximately, give or take a day or two) 9 March – 16 July – 6 December 2020.
- Saturn in Capricorn is authority, hierarchy and The Rules. She’s in serious trouble. So is Andrew. Saturn is in the middle of transiting his Venus/Mars conjunction, and this last Eclipse at 13 Capricorn fell conjunct his Saturn.
- You could argue that this is a showing for a close woman friend’s life coming apart, but as it shows so strongly it would indicate that he too is heavily implicated, as foreshadowed by his own Saturn Return coinciding with Epstein’s death.
In addition to the major Saturn cycles at work there was other key astrology showing Ghislaine’s arrest, with the Mercury transit pinpointing the exact date –
- On 2 July retrograde Mercury at 9 Cancer exactly opposite her natal Mercury at 9 Capricorn
- We can’t date this exactly because of no birth time but it’s about now – her progressed Venus opposite her progressed Pluto to within 2 minutes of arc based on a Noon chart. Venus is all the love, beauty and pleasures of our world, Pluto can wipe it all out.
This is desperate stuff. One of the charges is perjury from statements made four years ago. Would she risk further perjury by not talking about Prince Andrew if asked? I think not. Look at their other synastry –
- Prince Andrew Sun 0 Pisces – Ghislaine Uranus 0 Virgo/Chiron 2 Pisces
So his Sun is conjunct her Chiron (the wound) and opposite her Uranus. While this was once exciting and different it’s now the stuff of coming unstuck. Uranus is the tug at a knot that unravels the whole garment, it’s the planet of shocks, surprises, separation and divorce. Some of you might have been following a thread of discussion on the Facebook group page yesterday between myself and Elisabeth Brooke. https://www.facebook.com/groups/131108987086161/
Elisabeth thinks her Capricorn planets are enough to show that she’s likely to spill the beans to protect herself, writing – I’m thinking she might do a deal with prosecutors, and throw other people under the bus. Mars in Capricorn is a great tactition, knows how power works and how to get what it wants.
She might be right as unfortunately this stuff isn’t new either. Ghislaine has had a string of similar lawsuits to answer over the last five years and also has a history of disappearing – as she did when Epstein’s death was announced – and being unreachable during legal proceedings, and she’s paid out millions at least once in a settlement. It seems that she does have a case to answer, and it’s unlikely that she won’t take others down with her.
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING THIS WEEK?
The short answer to that is, not a lot. There are only two aspects this week and Mercury is involved in the first one, taking on importance as this is his last major aspect before turning direct –
Wednesday 8th July
- Mercury 6 Cancer square Mars 6 Aries 11.45
Mercury (communication) Mars (anger/strife) is always a combative or painful combination. Tread carefully with sensitive issues. This is not a time for going on the attack but it may bring events of the “last chance” kind re getting something resolved, or events that reveal the true heart of the matter. The things that are difficult to say or hear could point us in the direction of the truth, especially with things that have already been swept under the rug.
As Mercury is poised to turn direct he’ll catch up with slower moving Mars again and repeat this aspect on 27 July, which is in fact just one day after coming “out of shadow”. So bear in mind that whatever unfolds this week is still unlikely to be the final version, or may have far reaching repercussions. Any kind of decision making could get messy if what you want is at variance with what others want, but go back to Michelle Obama’s words for the quote this week. Do not make your decisions from a position of fear, or allow yourself to be overly influenced by the demands of others, especially anything that smacks of emotional blackmail. Unhook yourself from the past or any unhealthy attachments. The time is right to start dumping old baggage. Others will get over it.
For now Mercury is “stationing”, ie moving very slowly and appearing to come to a complete standstill at the end of the week as he ends the backwards loop and starts moving forwards again –
Sunday 12th July
Mercury turns direct at 5 Cancer 09.26
Sun 21 Cancer trine Neptune 21 Pisces 19.45
Mercury’s turning point is on the same day as the only other major aspect of the week, a lovely water trine between the Sun in Cancer and Neptune in his own sign of Pisces. For many this will be about enjoying the pleasures of more freedom, reconnecting with loved one and life’s pleasures that were impossible during full lockdown. Most importantly look out for turning points in your own life and relationships, and I’ll be talking more about this next week,
With love from Greece
Joanna