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"The natal chart is like a seed and progressions are the unfolding in time of that into the plant it is to become. Transits, are like a daily weather report. In political astrology, these three factors have to be taken into account!"
Unless otherwise stated, all data is rated A or AA from AstroDataBank
Recent NewsScope Articles
Jan. 5, 2015 - Will Hillary run? Bono's Chiron-Pluto opposition; Angelique Kidjo, Africa's premier diva.
Jan. 12, 2015 - Neptune's anxiety; France under attack; Pope Francis's exciting Venus return.
Jan. 19, 2015 - Court takes up gay marriage; Swiss Bank shocks system; Chris Kyle, American Sniper.
Jan. 26, 2015 - Deflategate: Tom Brady's footballs; February's top 5; Klay Thompson's best quarter.
Feb. 2, 2015 - Greece's Alexis Tsipras; Shake Shack's debut; Katy Perry at the Super Bowl.
Feb. 9, 2015 - Saturn in Sagittarius, Jill Stein's Green New Deal; Elvis meets Nixon.
Feb 16, 2015 - Jeff Jawer, astro-luminary; journalists in transition; Jeff and Scorpio Rising US chart.
Feb. 23, 2015 - Uranus enters the US sixth; Neonicotinoids and bees; Dr. Seuss is back!
March 2, 2015 - The Boris Nemtsov papers; March's top 5; David Tredinnick, the MP favoring astrology.
March 9, 2015 - Ceres into view, AAPL and solar energy; Chai Jing's "Under the Dome" goes viral.
March 16, 2015 - Britain's royal family under the Eclipse; Kate and William; Charles' progressed MC.
March 23, 2015 - Nuclear deal with Iran? April's top 5 astro-events; Krissi Brown remains in a coma.
March 30, 2015 - Andreas Lubitz, unfit for duty; Q&A - Richard III; Bas Lansdorp's Mars One mission.
April 6, 2015 - Obama and the Iran; NJ Senator Menendez indicted; Mad Men's Matthew Weiner.
April 13, 2015 - Hillary makes it official; Bill progressed Venus; Chelsea's prog Mars.
April 20, 2015 - Marco Rubio declares; Hillary and the Inequality bubble; Floyd Mayweather Fight.
April 27, 2015 - "Clinton Cash" and Clinton fatigue; Petrobras scandal; Bruce Jenner is a woman.
May 4, 2015 - Baltimore, a tale of two cities; May's top five astro-events; Marilyn Mosby's meteoric rise.
May 11, 2015 - Scottish independence; Ceres and the food revolution; the Hanneke Wrome.
May 18, 2015 - Rand Paul steps forward; re-thinking the U.S. Moon; Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.
May 25, 2015 - Ireland votes in favor of same-sex marriage; June's top five; American Pharoah.
June 1, 2015 - The FIFA scandal; Bernie Sanders, the authentic politician; Emma Stone's rising star.
June 8, 2015 - China hacking into American data; Martin O'Malley, the Dark Horse; MVP Stephan Curry.
June 15, 2015 - the Trans-Pacific partnership; Venus and Jupiter; Secretariat, the racing machine.
June 22, 2015 - Lilith and Pope Francis's historic encyclical; July's top five; Eris, the spiritual warrior.
June 29, 2015 - Obama secures his legacy; Minnesota top biz state; New Horizons nears Pluto.
July 6, 2015 - Greece and the New Moon; Donald Trump's remarks; fighting spirit of Eva Longoria.
July 13, 2015 - Mercury-Mars-Pluto alignment; China's bubble; Serena Williams and Roger Federer.
July 20, 2015 - Loretta Young date raped by Clark Gable? Wat happened in filming Call of the Wild?
July 27, 2015 - Uber and the "sharing economy; August's top five; SETI gets a $100 million donation.
Aug. 3, 2015 - Scott Walker and the plutocracy; Donald Trump and Rand Paul; JFK and Gene Tierney.
August 17, 2015 - Will Hillary win? Will Biden? The progressed Part of Fortune . Jen and Justin marry.
Reader feedback
re: NBA Finals - Great article on the NBA Finals. I love that you're an astrologer AND a sports fan! Hey, maybe you can start a website with astro insights for sports bettors like me! I love sports astrology, and you could really carve out a niche for yourself. NO ONE is doing it.
re: NewsScope - How can I get your news every week? I am a new reader.
A. NewsScope is updated every Monday. Just bookmark this page in your favorite places, and come back early in the week to get in depth astrology perspectives about current events.
re: O'Malley - Being a resident of NH, I've met Martin OMalley several times. I think of him as running for Vice President. Seems to have a good technical grasp of how to govern, setting goals, measuring outcomes, analyzing results. Might be a good Al Gore to Hillary's Clinton.... Loyal reader
re: NBA finals - I have a sports related question for you because I know you're a big basketball fan/former player. Who do you think is going to win the NBA Championship? Cleveland or Golden State? Thanks so much. LOVE your column, keep up the great work.
re: Putin - For all the Western nations suspicions about FIFA and Its awarding Russia the World Cup competition, Putin seems more popular than ever at home. It seems every attack by the media only strengthens his standing. Maybe the media should back off their scandal search and move on! What astrological factors explain his longevity?
re: Bernie Sanders - It is obvious, as you point out, that all the Republicans are concerned with serving the plutocrats, and not the people. It seems the same is true with Hillary, except she is someone more in touch with the people. The exception is Bernie Sanders. He is way more in touch with Americans. NewsScope is still interesting and insightful after all these years!
re: U.S. Moon - Just a comment on your recent article about the US moon’s irrelevance with today’s politicians, Ted Cruz has natal Jupiter in Scorpio, 25 degrees 42, and the north node at 25 degrees 19. I was under the impression that having a planet at 25 degrees, regardless of the sign, is a huge plus in the political landscape and connecting with the public at large.
A. Yes, you're correct, I forgot about his Jupiter, though I mentioned it in NewsScope March 30, 2015. By secondary progression, his Mercury will be at 26 degrees Capricorn next year, and nearly conjunct the U.S. Pluto.
re: U.S. Moon - Your comments about the relevance of connections to the U.S. Moon in Presidential Elections are interesting. I still feel they are very relevant. My system is to count up the number of conjunctions of an individual's Chart to the U.S. Chart and compare them. Whoever has the most conjunctions generally wins the Election. It clocks out. Your way works good and my way works good. People who become very popular in the United States (Hollywood Stars, writers, etc.) generally have a high number of conjunctions to the U.S. Chart.
re: Gable-Young - Your analysis of Loretta Young's and Clark Gable's charts got me thinking about birth times, trends, etc. I seem to be part of a cohort of women who had their one and only child at 40, we being some of the women who came of age in the late 60s and early seventies. Any prominent aspects affecting my group over those time eras? We definitely all came through that time when women/girls no longer had the absolute expectation (either personal or society-imposed) to marry and have kids right after college, or to "settle down" in some woman-friendly career, like teaching. We were the first wave to live feminism/women's lib. So what happened with us, astrologically speaking?
A. The Pill happened, along with the radical Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 1960s that opposed conventional Saturn. It's noteworthy that the four main asteroids were first introduced into horoscopes, making a kind of gender balance among deployed planets.
re: Minnesota - Thanks for your thoughtful defense in the matter of the Minnesota education system and "liberalism." Your weekly newsletter is always a treat. However this comment of yours hit one of my personal issues. We are all in this together. Any person's children and grandchildren deserve a quality education. In part because they will be taking care of the previous generations as we get older. But also because it is morally correct to provide opportunities for every human to find his/her unique gifts to share with the world.
re: Trump - Do you think Donald Trump has a chance? I think he touches a nerve in people. I think the political correctness has gone a little too far, we have all become a little mealy-mouthed.
re: Clark Gable - It is surprising how many male Hollywood stars have prominent Venus aspects. I wonder if the old label of "feminine planet" pertaining to Venus really has meaning. Now that male good looks, indeed beauty,
A. Actually, celebrities are said to be ruled by Venus. They attract attention, like Venus. We can see how well this works in Clark Gable's and Loretta Young's charts.
re: Loretta Young - Very good delineation..but one question remains for me unless I missed something. Who was in the role of Judy's father? Was Loretta married to someone else? Is there a physical resemblance to Clark? Is Judy still alive? By the way, I continue to be soooooo impressed by and with your skill at and capacity for, delineation!
A. Yes, the child is Clark Gable's. At one point, Loretta had her ears surgically altered because they stuck out so far, just like Clark's. Most everyone in Hollywood knew the truth. Loretta did get married to producer Tom Lewis in 1940, who took on the role of father, and they had two more sons. Loretta finally told her daughter in 1988 when Judy angrily confronted her, wanting to know the truth from her own mouth. Judy Lewis wrote a book, Uncommon Knowledge, about how it seemed she was the only one who didn't know her true parentage. She died in 2011.
re: Minnesota - In this week's NewsScope you have an article titled "Minnesota and the Jupiter-Uranus Cycle." You applaud the State's Governor for taxing the rich and raising the minimum wage, showing your liberal bias in interpreting mundane horoscopes, contrary to what you have said previously. BTW, what kind of jobs were created in Minnesota during those years? Serving patrons at McDonalds?
A. One of the reasons CNBC awarded the state the best place to do business is their excellent education system, to which an unusually large portion of the tax proceeds go to. As economists know, those with better educations get better jobs. That's why MN is at the top, not because the govt provides many low wage jobs.
As for my liberal bias, I wonder if you consider Warren Buffett to be a liberal? He has long supported tax reforms that share the burden more equitably. See his editorial on the subject here: nytimes.com/super-rich. I have also frequently written about the unfair leverage that the top 0.1% of the elite have over American politics, esp since the 2014 Supreme Court decision McCuthcheon vs the FEC allowed unlimited campaign donations. See neptunecafe.com/plutocracy
MN's plan works against this downward spiral into a Plutocracy, which is now the most unbalanced since 1929. If you consider that we are all connected psychically, socially, ecologically, and if 40 percent or more of the population is suffering financially, then that's a recipe for economic disaster. The federal government was designed to allow the states some self-determination, and if something works in one state, it can be replicated across the nation.
re: Jim Webb - I'm kind of looking for someone other than Hillary for the Democrats and have a spark of hope re Jim Webb, who's just thrown his hat into the ring. The only data I have on him is Feb. 9, 1946, St. Joseph, Missouri, no time…but that does give him some strong connections (at least so it seems to me at first glance) with reference to the Scorpio Rising USA Horoscope. Complex sort of duck, but maybe…What do you think?
re: racism - The question I want to ask is what astrological transits correlate African American. I love reading your blog -- sorry your webpage -- but I have yet to see a column on the massacre that happened in Charleston South Carolina. The question I would like to ask is can you do an astrological chart on this prevalent racism going on, can you do an analysis on why African Americans are having a hard time? Is there any coincidence to this events they may respond too it is a astrological explanation of these tragic in current events?
A. I do have a chart that describes African American relations with the rest of the country. I wrote about it last December and the chart is also there. See nsc120814
If you do the transits and progressions to that EP chart, you can see how active it is now. Mars at 22 degrees Aries is being activated very powerfully soon by transiting Uranus, and currently, transiting Pluto is conjunct the natal Mercury-Venus. Thanks for your email, and perhaps we can update this soon...
NewsScope for August 24, 2015
By Michael Wolfstar
The Plutonian Process
For an astrologer, this headline from a popular financial news website* needed further exploration: “The stars have aligned for an extended decline in U.S. markets”. What exactly is going on that is bringing the steepest decline in U.S. stock markets since the 2009 crash? One widely feared weak point in the global economy is China, as recently previewed here.
The planet best known for its transformative power did make a major alignment last week: transiting Pluto was precisely opposite the U.S. Sun. While the exact date for this important astro-event happened to coincide with a severe downturn in the U.S. markets, Pluto’s process develops over a year or more as it advances, retrogrades, and advances again over key points in horoscopes. Pluto is now in the final stages of its opposition to the U.S. Sun at 13º Cancer, which unfolds over the next three months.
Of course the U.S. Sun does not function in isolation. Its square to Saturn at 14º Libra represents a natal configuration that operates as a unit, so that transiting Pluto is activating the U.S. Sun-Saturn square. This extends the timeline for the effects of this powerful alignment through October 2016 or, essentially, through the entire presidential campaign. Pluto’s influence over U.S. politics can readily be summarized as the influence of Big Money, which is now far more pervasive than ever before.
A key phrase to follow over the coming year is “restructuring”. The U.S. social-political-economic system is undergoing a deep restructuring process on many fronts. Globally, the U.S. is restructuring its international relationships, with the most immediate being the nuclear deal with Iran and the Asian trade agreement. As for the presidential campaign, Pluto’s opposition to the Sun suggests the most negative campaign ever. Hope doesn’t sway voters this time around; angry attacks, as personified by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, capture solid pluralities.
Jerry Brown: The Dark Horse Candidate?
As Hillary Clinton’s campaign languishes under a double-whammy Neptune influence, Democrats are beginning to question whether she can get elected. Hillary’s progressed Sun squares natal Neptune, and transiting Neptune opposes her progressed Mars. Together, these have manifested as the “email scandal”**. With numerous ongoing court cases involved, damaging documents being released, and a congressional appearance due in October, this scandal has staying power.
California governor Jerry Brown (April 7, 1938; 12:38 pm; San Francisco, CA) was born with his Sun at 17º Aries, which is coming under the influence of transiting Uranus in Aries. For the moment, Brown is being diplomatically coy: he says he would run if he were ten years younger, and then goes on to lay out a three-point plan that looks like an ideal presidential platform.
Transiting Uranus will be within one degree of his Sun from October through February 2016. Among astrologers, Uranus is widely known as “The Awakener”, and the timing of this transit fits perfectly with Hillary’s decline and the first primaries. The downside for a Brown national campaign is that he has no planets in aspect to the U.S. Moon, either natally or by secondary progression.
However, the times are changing and elections may be decided by the Pluto factor: Brown’s natal Pluto is exactly aligned with the U.S. Pluto, which may bring him the SuperPAC funds needed to sway the national audience. Come Election Day, Brown’s progressed Part of Fortune will be at 3º Virgo, which is sextile his progressed Sun and trine his Mercury-Venus conjunction in the tenth house. This is certainly more favorable than what’s happening in Hillary’s chart.
* See marketwatch
* Slate explains the email scandal here.
Megan Fox Files for Divorce
Transformers’ star Megan Fox filed for divorce last Friday, only two days after she announced that she and husband Brian Green had recently separated. By Hollywood standards, their six-year dating phase and five years of marriage is relatively lengthy. Megan (May 16, 1986; 12:35 am; Oak Ridge, TN) has studied astrology, and describes what it means to have Mars on your Ascendant.
“It colors your chart and who you are, and to have that intense energy with me means that I sort of embody this. I embody self-will, being assertive. I don't have a problem leading or being in charge.” She and Green (b. July 15, 1973) have numerous favorable factors between their two charts, but one area of tension is her Mars in Capricorn squaring his Mars in Aries.
The Mars-Mars square can lead to stimulating challenges so that they push each other to be stronger. Another example of this intra-aspect is Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. We thought they’d always be together, but when this Mars-Mars interchange gets activated by an outer planet transit, the competing egos don’t back down. Transiting Uranus (sometimes referred to as “the divorce planet”) has been conjoining Brian’s Mars and squaring Megan’s.
Megan was born with Black Moon Lilith in her 5th house of children where it opposes Juno, the marriage asteroid. The couple has two children, plus one from Brian’s former relationship. At the moment, her progressed Midheaven is now exactly opposite natal Lilith, suggesting they are dealing with the most difficult issue of parenting the children. And intriguingly, Megan’s progressed Sun is nearly conjunct natal Venus, a signature which traditionally indicates that she has met her true love. What do you think: does this mean she and Brian will get back together, or is there someone new?
re: U.S. economy - Isn't it a little ironic that the series of Uranus/Pluto squares is now over: ending in Spring 2015. Yet now, the economy starts to look shaky again with China's slowdown. Apparently 10 years of Federal Reserve intervention has its limits. It is almost like Uranus partially offset the Pluto opposition to the USA Sun but is no longer helping.
A. Uniquely in the U.S., Uranus has been a minor player in the Uranus-Pluto square. Most likely, the reason is because in the U.S. chart, the progressed Ascendant has been aligned with natal Pluto, emphasizing this factor. You can read about this in more detail at plutocracy.
re: Pluto - You wrote: "However, the times are changing and elections may be decided by the Pluto factor." Thinking about this at a people level makes me cringe. A connection to the U.S. Moon used to be of the utmost importance. As a candidate, you have to connect with the people. You serve them. They vote for you. But now, it's all about power. The people don't matter anymore. SIGH
re: Pop Quiz - In answer to your Pop Quiz in your weekly Neptune Cafe newsletter, it looks like Donald Trump's progressed Part of Fortune is at zero degrees Scorpio. Will it be at 15 degrees Scorpio come election? Love reading your column each week!!
A. No, you're doing something wrong. His Part of Fortune (progressed) is currently at 2 degrees Virgo. Do you have astrology calculation software? It'll be at 19 degrees Virgo in Nov 2016, which squares his 10th house Uranus. This describes a disruptive force more than an election win.
