Aspects for the week beginning 5 November 2017

Tracey Ullman

I watch the news as diligently as the next person, and only switch off from it as a last resort.  I feel the need to be informed, to a degree, and to know where to send healing thoughts.  This week, as the allegations of sexual harassment in Westminster piled up (and much as I applaud the outing of the perpetrators), I began to long for some good news, or even some laughter (I was on the verge of buying “Private Eye”).  This ability to laugh at the world of politics was provided on Friday evening by the outstandingly gifted Tracey Ullman whose impressions and inspired scripts had me nearly falling off the sofa.

The evening’s viewing (and I apologize for two television blogs in a row) started in a surreal way, watching Celebrity Gogglebox.  The actual Jeremy Corbyn, Liam Gallagher and Sharon and Ozzy Osborne were watching programmes I had seen this week (University Challenge and Strictly) or half seen (Nigella Lawson’s “At My Table”).  Then I turned over to watch Tracey impersonating Jeremy Corbyn on Gogglebox watching television.  Sheer genius.

I have been sold on her portrayals of Angela Merkel and Nicola Sturgeon in previous series, and can’t get enough of them.  This week Tracey’s Angela Merkel was beguiled into a trade treaty with Emmanuel Macron.  And Tracey is surrounded by talent, too: A John McDonnell watching television with Jeremy Corbyn was a convincing look and sound-a-like, as was the Mhairi Black she has as a sidekick to her Nicola Sturgeon.  Tracey’s super-capable Clare Balding was a revelation, completely out of the blue!

Birth Chart

What intimations of such comedy genius are shown in a birth chart?  Surely not Sun conjunct Saturn in Capricorn, with the Moon also in Capricorn?  But that is what she has in her chart.  It’s the ability to look grimly at political reality and extract the humour, presumably.  If she did not look at it so closely with such an eye for detail, she would not be able to create such exquisite observational humour.  Much more understandable in terms of what she does is her triple conjunction of Mercury, Jupiter and Mars in Sagittarius trine Uranus (quick humour and sharp wit with the capacity to surprise, topically produced in one week, in her programme titled “Tracey breaks the News”).  She says of her childhood “our defence against hardship was having a great sense of humour”.

History

I was heartbroken when she moved to America in 1985, having provided us with great entertainment with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield in “Three of a Kind” (and she had also found success in singing).  But the U.S.A. was where her destiny led her (her success there  was predicted by a clairvoyant when she was young).  She married producer Allan McKeown in 1983, and moved with him to the U.S. where she eventually created “The Tracey Ullman Show” which was highly successful. We did view it here in the U.K. for a while, and I remember the birth of The Simpsons, which started out as an interlude on that show. Neptune was on her Sun at the debut of that show and sextile her Neptune – among other things, Neptune represents impressions, which are one of her major talents.  Ruby Wax has said of her: “She’s just brilliant–a bloodsucker of personalities. You walk away, and she’s taken a little bit of your brain.”  Could it be that she channels (Neptune) live characters?

Marriage

Tracey found personal happiness with Allan in America, and they had two children together.  Her Mars and Jupiter were sextile his Jupiter, an upbeat combination.  They had married under a transit of excitement (Mars sextile her Uranus) and one of healing (Jupiter trine her Chiron).

Her father had died when she was 6 years old, and Allan too was to die at a relatively young age of 67. At Allan’s death Uranus was squaring Tracey’s conjunction of Sun and Saturn, and it proved to be a marked change (Uranus) in her life, as she moved back to the U.K.

Back to the U.K.

Her new show in the U.K. first aired on 9th January 2016, with Neptune sextile her natal Sun and trine her natal Neptune (again a triumph for Neptune and Impressions). We do not have her birth time, but in her natal chart her Sun/Saturn is exactly sextile Neptune.  So the inspirational planet Neptune is a key planet for her, and I wonder therefore if she has its sign Pisces rising. She has gone from strength to strength with the new format, and continues to delight, with regular impressions she has kept in the mix such as Camilla, and new ones she has created such as Clare Balding.

So thank you, Tracey, for being the answer to a prayer this week!

Aspects

It’s a sunny morning here in Norfolk, a fine start to the week, just as Mercury is preparing to leave Scorpio and enter Sagittarius this evening.  Mercury in Scorpio has provided a great deal of talk of sexual harassment since the exposure of Harvey Weinstein (no pun intended), which I wrote about on 15th October.  The mental focus from tonight and lasting until the second week in January will be wider, and where applied to sexual harassment will tend to look at the wider implications rather than just the initial revelations: impact on society, male-female relations going forward, philosophical considerations, and the law and lawsuits, all domains of Sagittarius.

In our own lives, we may be able to dream further, take the longer view, look forward more to a brighter future, despite the dire news.  It is a matter of hope that society will be much better off now that it has become easier to talk about the issues of sexual harassment, power abuse and male domination etc.  Mercury in Scorpio focuses on the secrets, and Mercury in Sagittarius makes it easier to talk more honestly and openly.  The Harvey Weinstein watershed came just as Jupiter was about to go into the sign of Scorpio (sexuality), when it was just at the end of working through Libra (relationships), so highlighted the need to heal a fundamental issue about relationships.  So Jupiter has only just started its work in Scorpio (it stays a year in one sign) and looks to have a healthy effect on our lives.  In November 2018 Jupiter will move into Sagittarius, and so in experiencing Mercury in Sagittarius at this time we will be having a foretaste of what Jupiter in Sagittarius will be able to do for us.  Mercury in Sagittarius is a good placing for our general morale.

There’s another change of planetary sign on Tuesday (7th) when Venus enters Scorpio. Whereas Mercury is about what we focus on mentally, Venus is about where our feelings are.  So in our feelings, and examination of relationships, we are going from Venus in Libra (which is about love and relationship) to a deeper examination, e.g. what experiences we have had in the realm of sexuality, psychology, and the more intimate aspects of relating.  What do we feel about it all, and where do we want to take our emotional lives now, especially now that there is an opportunity for change in our society?  Venus is only staying a short while in Scorpio, until 1st December, so this intensive investigation period of love and feelings is a window of opportunity, before Venus enters the more expansive sign of Sagittarius.

Thursday (9th) brings a meaty aspect we can really do something with, Sun sextile Pluto!  Important concerns can come to deep resolution around this time, especially if we have been consciously working on our psychology.  This is an important stepping stone towards Saturday’s major aspect.  Power is one of the issues we can work on profitably at this time, i.e. the correct use of power, and the correct balance of power in relation to others.  If you are in command of yourself, own your power and take responsibility, then all should flow well in relation to others.

The nub of the week comes right at the end, on Saturday (11th), with a trine between Saturn and Uranus, the co-operation between tradition and innovation.  This trine is as constructive as last week’s “big” aspect of Saturn square Chiron was difficult to negotiate.  It may not feel particularly joyful or carefree, but it may feel as though some hard work during the past few months has paid off.  The aspect last appeared in the middle of May this year, for your diary referencing.  Engineering and social projects are especially favoured.  This aspect could be especially significant for Capricorns and Aquarians.

On the same day the Nodal Axis squares the Sun, bringing power issues within groups to the fore.  This may be linked with the action of Saturn and Uranus which among other things represents wide scale initiatives in connection with administration and groups.  The positioning of the Nodal Axis will ensure karmic justice within the structure of projects and power balances, though there may be a few personality clashes (you can’t always please everyone).

The week in bullet points:

• Today – a wider view
• Tuesday – a deeper feeling
• Thursday – a more significant accomplishment
• Saturday – the most important day