Friday Bite: 10 May 2024

Time Running Out

Gaza – Putin – Signs of concern

THEY SAY A WEEK is a long time in politics. When last week’s Friday Bite was posted, the extent of the UK government’s losses in the local and mayoral elections was only just becoming apparent. The Conservative party had been prepared for a pasting but the reality of the defeat, the magnitude of the losses, were humiliating. A situation not helped by Wednesday’s defection of Tory MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke, who crossed over to the other side (the Labour benches) at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions. There are now only months to go before a general election, and Sir Kier Starmer and the opposition are riding high. Then again, a month or more could be said to be an epoch in politics…

The United Kingdom isn’t the only country in political turmoil. It is part of a wave of disaffection that is propelling people toward extremes. Up to 450 million Euro Zone citizens will head to the polls in early June and opinion polls are forecasting significant gains for far-right and anti-establishment parties. And, although this may be rather simplistic, part of the reason for the failures of Rishi Sunak’s government is his difficulty in pleasing both the hard-right of his government and the centre and getting anything sensible done. He’s a prime minister trying to conduct a symphony orchestra with both hands tied behind his back.

On Sunday, Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his fifth term as president. The lavish, glitzy ceremony held in the Andreyevsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace was boycotted by Western diplomats. (No explanation necessary.) The day before, Russia held tactical nuclear drills, as if the world needed any more evidence that the nuclear option is on the table. Mr Putin took the opportunity at Thursday’s Victory Day parade to accuse the West of “distorting history” and reminding us that his country’s atomic weapons were “always ready”.

On Monday, there was elation on the streets of Gaza when it appeared that Hamas had accepted a cease-fire deal put together by Egypt and Qatar.  The celebrations were short-lived, however, and on Tuesday, Israeli tanks rolled into southern Gaza and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt.

On Wednesday, President Biden announced that were Israel to mount a ground attack on Rafah, it would cease sending weapons to the country. The United States has already paused delivery of bombs and artillery shells. In response, Mr Netanyahu vowed Israel would “stand alone…[and] if we must we shall fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than our fingernails, and with that strength of spirit, with God’s help, together we shall be victorious.” I mentioned in my last Friday Bite that the second half of May looked promising for a ceasefire, which, admittedly, looks rather a faint hope at this point.

The most promising signs of an agreement appear on and around 18 May, when Venus and Uranus will be conjoined to Israel’s natal Sun while the Sun and Jupiter will square the country’s natal Mars. Then again, these transits could just as easily preside over Israel’s ground offensive on Rafah. Jupiter expands the revolutionary properties of Uranus, whether in a welcome or not so welcome way.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, in a New York courtroom, Stormy Daniels took to the witness stand in the “hush-money” trial against Donald Trump. Her testimony was cringe-making and to my mind has the potential to do more damage to the prosecution’s case than favours. (One has to ask, was all that information about what passed between the two in a hotel room really necessary?) Mr Trump was cautioned yet again by Judge Mechan over his behaviour in the courtroom – the former president had been observed “cursing audibly” and “shaking his head”.

THE ABOVE CHART serves not only as a snapshot of President Putin’s fifth term but also the influences presiding over the events of the past seven days. On Tuesday, the Moon entered Taurus and the following day conjoined the Sun, forming a new moon at 18 degrees. While the new moon may be a portent of many new beginnings it is most certainly a sign of Israel’s resolve to finish the job they started.

The Sun is moving ever closer to Uranus and Jupiter, meeting Uranus on Monday, 13 May and Venus and Jupiter on the 18th. As each day passes, the potential for sudden and unexpected developments grows ever stronger. We should look out for some fiery exchanges and explosive developments in that Manhattan courtroom as well as in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

PUTIN’S FIFTH TERM, which has the potential to span the rest of his life, suggests he is at the peak of his powers (Sun, Moon and Venus conjunct the Midheaven and applying to the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction.) However, in the same way that the Sun is at its highest point at mid-summer yet simultaneously beginning its decline, Putin’s time in the Sun is on the wane.

The proximity of the Sun and Venus to Uranus and Jupiter acquires an extra layer of meaning when we look at the day-for-a-year progressions or a-month-for-a-year (tertiary) progressions. In five years (or five months) the progressed Sun will reach Uranus and in four years (or four months) progressed Uranus will square the Ascendant-Descendant axis. Prior to this, progressed Uranus will reach Jupiter and progressed Venus the Midheaven.

Without getting us tied up in knots with degrees and numbers, suffice to say that after a short honeymoon period, upsets follow. And we should be on the lookout for events of significance regarding Putin’s leadership from July/August through October of this year as well as 2025/6 through 2029.

Putin came to power on 31 December 1999. He, as Russia’s Great Redeemer, brought in the new millennia. He was sworn in, however, on 7 May 2000. While both dates are significant for Putin’s leadership, the swearing-in ceremony (which we have just witnessed for the fifth time) puts the official stamp on his presidency.

What greater sign of a leader born to rule with an iron rod than a Sun-Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the tenth house. The Jupiter-Saturn cycle is of great significance in affairs of state (it was not just by chance that Charles and Diana married on the exact Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 1981, which was rising at the time of the wedding). However, and I know you’re ahead of me here, that marvellous Sun-Jupiter-Saturn stellium in the inauguration chart is squared by Uranus.

As we know, Putin’s presidency has not been short-lived – the square to Uranus did not lead to his exodus within a handful of years – although his two decades plus in office have not been without assassination attempts, attempted coups and the like.

And that pesky Uranus keeps showing up at inaugurations like a bad fairy.

Jupiter has just returned for the second time since Putin was sworn-in – the previous occasion was in May of 2012 – and since his natal Jupiter is at 20 degrees of Taurus, these returns are of super significance both for him personally and his leadership. His leadership is getting a massive reboot.

By progression, the Midheaven of the 2000 inauguration has reached 18 degrees of Taurus, thereby conjoining the “natal” Sun-Jupiter-Saturn conjunction and simultaneously squaring Uranus. Progressed Saturn is opposed to the Pluto-Chiron conjunction of the inauguration chart. These progressions march alongside the transit of Uranus to Putin’s Jupiter and square to his Midheaven and Pluto. Indeed, the recent Jupiter-Uranus conjunction fell on his natal Jupiter.

While I consider Putin to be far from safe – and if Prigozhin could mount a semi-successful coup, so could someone in Putin’s innermost circle – the real signs of major change for Russia occur in 2026 when Saturn and Neptune conjoin in Aries. These two planets will be within a hair of each other in July-August of next year so I am not entirely ruling out changes in Russia’s power structure before 2026.

The Saturn-Neptune cycle has been in play at key points in Russia’s history over the past 170 years, if not a lot longer. 1917 (Saturn conjunct Neptune in Leo) saw the assassination of Tsar Nicholas 11, the October Revolution and the beginning of Communist Russia while the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn of 1989 presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The publication of Marx’s Poverty of Philosophy formed the basis of the Communist Manifesto – 1846 and Saturn conjunct Neptune in Aquarius. So, we can assume with some certainty that Russia will once again be in the throes of revolution in and around 2026.

TWO UNRELATED INCIDENTS but connected by their extreme strangeness, occurred on 24 April in London. At around 8:40, as horses from the Household Cavalry were taking their morning exercise, a sudden, loud noise from a construction site caused four horses to bolt, sending them galloping riderless through the streets of central London. One of them, a white stallion, was covered in blood. At the same time, Big Ben suffered a major malfunction and the hands on the great clock froze at 9:00 am. They started moving again just after ten and then incorrectly chimed eleven times.

Synchronicities are meaningful coincidences: one event does not cause the other. However, we experience an eerie sense of foreboding when such strange occurrences happen at the same time. What is the meaning of such incidents? Are they foreshadowing things to come? It struck some as a sign of the end times. I have to say, associations with the four horsemen of the apocalypse did spring to mind as well as time running out, but let us allow the voice of reason to prevail. It was just one of those things. And a full moon in Scorpio squaring Pluto probably had nothing to do with it… 

Friday Bite: 3 May 2024

Conflicting Opinions

WHEN I THINK back over the main events of the past seven days, anger and frustration are common factors. Daily, via our newsfeeds, come reports of violence, seemingly for no good reason in some instances, and in others levelled at the actions of governments and institutions.

Last week I mentioned the protests on university campuses across the United States and compared them with the 1968 student protests in Europe and America – a period similarly presided over by a Jupiter-Uranus conjunction – and this week those demonstrations have intensified. Two thousand pro-Palestinian protestors have been arrested thus far. Calls for President Biden to address the situation were answered on Thursday when he announced at a press conference “There is a right to protest but not a right to cause chaos…order must prevail.”

America is not the only country to be experiencing mass pro-Palestine student protests: Canada, Australia, France and England are others.

In Georgia, the government’s “foreign influence” bill has propelled thousands into the streets of Tbilisi to protest. The bill, which passed its second reading on Wednesday, forces NGOs, civil rights groups and media to register as foreign agents if 20% of their funding comes from abroad. Georgia’s bid for membership of the European Union and NATO is enshrined in its constitution and supported by 80 % of the country but such legislation would mean that membership is off the table. The ruling party, the Georgian Dream, seems bent on moving the country closer to Russia.

By contrast, it seems the conflict in Gaza is poised for a breakthrough – something I referred to as a potential outcome of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which fell on Israel’s natal Sun. A deal is on the table, it remains for Hamas to agree to it. The most promising signs of an agreement appear on and around 18 May, when Venus and Uranus will be conjoined to Israel’s natal Sun while the Sun and Jupiter will square the country’s natal Mars. Then again, these transits could just as easily preside over Israel’s ground offensive on Rafah. Jupiter expands the revolutionary properties of Uranus, whether in a welcome or not so welcome way.

Here in the United Kingdom, a thirty-six-year-old man ran amok in a quiet suburban street, wielding a sword and killing a fourteen-year-old boy on his way to school. In Sheffield, a seventeen-year-old boy was arrested on charges of attempted murder for attacking a child and two adults.

And so it goes. An endless litany of mindless violence and devastated lives.

In last week’s Friday Bite, I looked at the chart of Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf to explore what possibilities there were for him to ride through the crisis he himself had created. With the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on his natal Mars and opposing his Moon, I suggested it was “going to be difficult for the first minister to remain in place. The cosmic lords have spoken!” And accordingly, on Monday, Mr Yousaf announced his resignation.

Events moved quickly thereafter and by Thursday it was a one-man race for the position. John Swinney, former deputy leader of the Scottish National party (November 2014 – March 2023), is expected to take over next week. Like Yousaf, he is a Sun Aries, but he has Pluto currently squaring his natal Jupiter, and presiding over a rise to power. Swinney is considered to be a “pair of safe hands”. How he manages power against such political turmoil remains to be seen.

AT 17:27 IN WENCHANG, China, a rocket to the far side of the Moon took off. Here is a picture of that moment.

I am slightly disappointed. No angular Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which would have fitted this world-first, nor is Pluto on an angle. Instead, we find Chiron on the descendant, conjoined to Mercury, Mars separating from Neptune and the Moon applying to Saturn. At best these influences underpin a journey in knowledge, which, of course, is the purpose of the mission, but at worse, there could be technical problems and possibly challenges getting the probe back from the far side of the Moon.

The above chart also serves as a picture of the times.

The shape of a chart is an immediate, simple and enlightening means of extracting information about an individual, an event or a country. As you can see from the above image, all the planets occupy one section of the horoscope. (The part of fortune and the nodes are not included in a horoscopic shaping.) In a natal chart, this Bundle shaping indicates an individual who is highly focussed – a specialist – someone who tends to be inflexible, tightly wound up and likes to be in control. All of which is going to be very helpful if you have given birth to a baby in the past few months or are about to do so.

What I am also discovering is the part such a tight group of planets plays in the way people respond to the situations in which they find themselves. The wave of anger and frustration which is fuelling protests and random attacks across the world is almost palpable, and from a distant perspective, if you’re not involved, it can seem as though people are being very unreasonable, if not completely irrational.

Take for example what is happening in a New York courtroom. A former president is on trial for criminal acts alleged to have taken place before the 2016 election. His posts on Truth Social have already led to his being found in contempt of court, and while a good part of the country is wondering why he isn’t already behind bars a whole other part believes him to be their saviour, the hope of America. One of the potential jurors who was excused from serving on the jury, has received death threats, despite not being involved in the trial.

Events in and of themselves are extreme and polarizing and they evoke extreme behaviour. And this trend will be apparent in all our lives to a greater or lesser extent.

We live in interesting times.