Who’d be a politician, let alone a world leader in these turbulent times? Watching recent news footage of a beyond-weary Boris out and about, pressing his suit on British voters and reassuring one and all of his absolute trustworthiness, and a palely shrunken Donald Trump making  a hasty and premature departure from the NATO meeting, leaving a trail of outrage in his wake, premiership is clearly no place for those who would sip at the fountain of youth. Trump looks every one of his 73 years and Boris every one of his 55, and then some.

Mr Trump was in London to attend NATO’s 70th anniversary meeting. And if you thought this might be an occasion worthy of festive fireworks, you’d be wrong. There were fireworks but those of the verbal variety. And they left scorch marks on the red carpet. They may never come out.

I thought it impossible to feel a spit of sympathy for the American president but when Canadian premier, Justin Trudeau, was caught on camera mocking the Donald, it was unseemly to say the least. It was almost worse than the mugging Trump got from President Macron who took great exception to his joke about ISIS fighters being returned to France. “Let’s be serious…” he hissed.

So, the party ended in tears, and NATO in tatters.

Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but if ever the world needed an international body intent on supporting individual nations against an aggressor it is now. And perhaps if Presidents Trump and Macron had a smattering of astrological knowledge, they’d know that too

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization came into being on 4th April, 1949. However, it was only signed and sealed some four months later when France ratified the treaty and President Truman signed it. And it is that moment, when Truman placed his signature on the document, that the treaty was brought into force. This is the chart of that moment.

NATO is not just a military alliance, but a political one. The organization serves to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of its peoples and was founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. In the wake of two world wars which decimated Europe and much of the wider world, NATO’s raison d’être was to ensure its member states were held in a common bond and protected against aggression from any nation beyond it. During the Cold War NATO provided a shield against the Soviet Union, but as times changed and costs grew, so too did the chorus of criticism.

Which brings us to today. Donald Trump has made clear his ambivalence about NATO and, according to a report in the New York Times, has privately stated on several occasions that he would like to withdraw from the alliance. And, if he gets a second term, that privately held view might well turn into reality.

President Macron is another who is of the opinion NATO has done its day, describing it as “brain-dead”.

And here we are, a little over a month away from a Saturn-Pluto conjunction.

History provides a wonderful source of reference for astrologers. Great planetary cycles, some of which take decades to complete, reflect our lives and times, and we can look back at those periods and make projections about the future.

When Saturn and Pluto were in conjunction in 1947, World War II had just ended and the world was in the process of reformation. Boundaries were being redrawn. Land was redistributed. Allegiances changed. Old orders were replaced by new ones.

And this is the process we can expect in 2020.

Already we have seen Russia trying and in one case succeeding (Crimea) in regaining lost territory and a matter of weeks ago, Putin gained a significant foothold in North-eastern Syria. His recent visit – the first in ten years – to Saudi Arabia is of concern.

China is also asserting its presence in the South China Sea and Iran rattling its sabre in the all-vital Strait of Hormuz. Indeed, there are many simmering conflicts that could erupt into larger wars, and in such a threatening astrological climate, the importance of NATO cannot be underestimated.

If we look at the chart for the alliance, we can see that Uranus is currently transiting the Descendant, the cusp of the house of relating, so is it any wonder there are rifts and rows and rocky relations. If this were the natal chart of an individual, we might consider the imminence of a divorce. The applying Saturn-Pluto conjunction is approaching NATO’s Jupiter and opposing its Mars, so that Jupiterian spirit of all-for-one-and-one-for-all is clearly under threat. And with the lunar eclipse of 10th January cutting across that Mars-Jupiter opposition, prior to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, maybe, just maybe, the strength and purpose of NATO is about to be truly tested.

Before that, however, a solar eclipse conjunct Jupiter, will fall in opposition to NATO’s Uranus, which in turn squares Venus, the ruler of the house of relating. A surprise rebirth? Another round of verbal bullets? Or a call to arms?

It is possible that these recent spits and spats are reflective of theses influences – the time line of an eclipse is long and stretches forward and back – but we need to reach the end of January before we can be sure these portents merely relate to internal issues, not least the disparity between the financial contributions each nation makes.

In previous articles I have suggested that in 2020 many institutions that have stood the test of time will collapse, but even with these challenging transits, I do not believe NATO will be one of them. Maybe this is just a case of my listening to the voice of my hopes. We shall see.