Mandy Allwood's action against Max Clifford for breach of trust may not be his only current problem. At the end of this month he faces the judgment of Saturn, the cosmic reaper returning to its birth position at the end of its second 29-year cycle. Max Clifford Associates started at the opening of this cycle in the early 70's, and the closing of the circle now marks a symbolic calling to account. So where is he headed?

Slow, straight-laced Saturn is a tough test for a fast-moving Aries like Clifford (April 6 1943). Much of his success comes from the upfront and intuitive style of the Aries Ram, with its need to be first and its keep-it-simple, now-or-never approach. His unique talents as a publicist are indicated by Mercury, messenger of the gods, blazing away next to the Sun in fiery Aries, with both planets square to imaginative Jupiter. This gives him a marvellous ability to create or capture an image, and then to amplify it, and he sees no harm in the odd porky - "as long as your distortion of the truth isn't harming anyone, it's fine". The astrologer Charles Carter tells us that this planetary configuration "inclines to carelessness and imprudence, especially in small things; the native tends to exaggerate, and scorns the dull formality of facts." Freddie didn't really eat that hamster, but what the hell...

Clifford's charitable Jupiter also shows his deep-rooted commitment to NHS reform, as well as his claim to use moral discretion in his choice of clients. His horoscope bears this out through a clutch of dignified planets, giving an ability, and a desire, to do deals which leave both sides feeling happy. He prides himself on smoking out hypocrisy and whether it has been through exposing Tory sleaze, or bringing his clients a blaze of publicity, he seems to believe his own spin when he says "I like openness on all fronts, not taboos and cover-ups." But wherever there is such a bright, dazzling solar beam, Darth Veda lurks in its shadow. Clifford speaks openly about the epilepsy which he developed at the age of 46, just at the time his career was beginning to rocket after the Freddie Starr coup. It seems a curious contrast that as he rose to new heights as a publicist who could master-mind the spotlight, he also had to negotiate the constant threat of blackout and its total lack of control.

During this period, between 1990 and 1994, his horoscope showed a stunning set of contacts with the brilliant but unstable joining of Mercury and the Sun to the wild-card, dissociated planet, Uranus. However, since then Clifford's readiness to break taboos has drawn him into a morally dubious Plutonic realm of life and death, reflected in his promotion of O.J. Simpson, Tony Martin the Norfolk farmer, and Mandy Allwood, who lost her octuplets in a blaze of publicity.

For many years this Ram has been butting along with little to hinder him, but now that dispiriting Saturn has come calling, nothing works like it used to. The old game will soon be over and Clifford needs a new script. He loves a challenge and believes in supporting the craziest of underdogs, but he should beware of being drawn into one last dark throw of the dice to prove how good he is. Now is the time to turn his talents towards more charitable projects until his Aries fire re-ignites, giving him new vision and inspiration in 2003.