Friday Bite 26 June 2026

The Shocks Keep A-Coming

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace.” Sir Keir Starmer, 22 June

“I don’t know. I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town. I hear he’s extremely liberal, extremely, so that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea.” Donald Trump on Andy Burnham, 22 June

“Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.” Minnesota governor Tim Walz in reference to the Reflecting Pool fandango. 20 June

“So, I have Iran on the ‘ropes,’ ready to go down for the fall, willing to give us practically anything, and for the first time in decades, respecting the hell out of the United States and its President, ME, and the U.S. Senate decides to have a poorly timed and meaningless War Powers Act Vote…”  Donald Trump 23 June

IT WAS AS I thought, Sir Keir fell on his sword on Monday, after a weekend of soul-searching with his family, and paved the way for a peaceful transition of power. Later on Monday, Andy Burnham was sworn in as Member of Parliament for Makerfield, and he could become prime minister within three weeks. (Potential candidates have from 9-15 July to acquire enough backers to stand for election, and should only one meet the threshold, he or she will be announced on 17 July.)

I discussed Mr Burnham’s chart in last week’s Bite, which you can find below this one, however, my gut instinct tells me, despite his being hailed as a Messiah, he will fast disappoint.

Great Britain is divided, a fact which became clear during the Brexit referendum, and due to the combined effects of Covid and the war in Ukraine, that division has become even more pronounced. And no one can successfully run a divided country and a divided party, which is why we have had six prime ministers in as many years. So, I’m not holding out a lot of hope for Mr Burnham. If he increases the defence budget, maybe I’ll change my mind.

And speaking of Brexit. Tuesday marked the tenth anniversary of Britain’s leaving the EU. That day is engraved on my mind. I went to bed in the knowledge that the vote, although tight, was in favour of Remain, and woke up at seven the next morning to discover that we were to leave the Union.

Here is a picture of that moment.

Astrology can be poetic. Rising to the Capricorn Ascendant – Great Britain, a solidly Capricorn country – is Pluto, the planet of transformation, reformation, death and rebirth.  Britain, as we can see from the evidence of ten years outside Europe, has completely changed. We were a declining power before Brexit and now we’re relying on our great history to remain relevant.

Mars, another identifying figure for Great Britain (Aries rising), is conjunct the Scorpio Midheaven, squaring the Moon (representative of the people). Mars is septile the rising Pluto and both are tri-septile Mercury, forming a Yod-like configuration. Septiles have a strong aura of fate about them, and given that Mercury is the focus for this configuration, we can assume that this decision (Mercury) of the British people was destined to completely change our fortunes.

There is a T-square made up of an opposition between Jupiter and Neptune in the second and eighth houses squaring Saturn. Jupiter-Neptune combos can signal unimaginable wealth but they can also point to the very opposite. And squared by Saturn, there is either the consolidation of economic power or quite the reverse.

However, there’s not just one T-square but two, thereby creating a Grand Cross. Saturn is also opposed to Mercury, which in turn squares the Jupiter-Neptune opposition. I think we see the division in opinion over Brexit here and in turn the division of the British people. And it’s going to be interesting to see what happens when Uranus makes its first connection with this Grand Cross in the June of 2028, when it opposes Saturn.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Britain rejoins Europe, albeit under a different framework.

There is another Brexit chart worthy of consideration – that regarding the actual exit of Britain from Europe, which occurred on 1 January, 2020.

And what do we find on this occasion but Pluto conjunct the IC, reinforcing the transformational message of the referendum chart and representing the country’s actual rupture from the European family. You may remember January 2020 for another exit – Megxit – and the onset of the Covid Pandemic. On 10 January, there was a lunar eclipse, followed two days later by the Saturn-Pluto conjunction.  Saturn-Pluto transits often preside over conflicts and transformational boundary changes – North and South Korea, for instance – and Britain’s exit from the European Union was all of that. And we are still suffering the consequences of that decision. That the Moon in Aries (on the Anaretic degree, no less) is conjunct Uranus and squaring the Saturn-Pluto conjunction speaks for itself.

Mars in this chart at 19 degrees of Sagittarius is almost exactly opposite the referendum Mercury, and is another indication of a potential change in the status-quo of Britain and the European Union in 2028.

AND NOW TO Venezuela. At four minutes past six on Wednesday evening, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake took place in an area just north-west of the capital Caracas. It was followed 39 seconds later by an even bigger quake (magnitude 7.5). At the time of writing, the death toll has reached 235, but with 50,000 people missing that number is expected to rise dramatically. Such a massive eruption would be devastating anywhere, but in Venezuela which has no discernible infrastructure in place to cope with such a massive search and rescue operation, the situation is beyond desperate. And since the capital’s airport is unusable, it makes the global rescue mission far more complicated and considerably delayed.

There are several significant factors in the above chart of this double earthquake. At the moment of impact, Neptune was conjunct the IC and squaring the Sun. In my research into eruptions, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune are often to be found on an angle or conjunct Mars, the Sun or the Moon. 28 degrees of Sagittarius rises, a degree that appears with some regularity at time of eruptions, as does 28 degrees of Gemini. 27/28 Sagittarius is the degree of the Galactic Centre, and while I have no rational argument as to why this degree should show up so often with earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, it is interesting.  You may also note a configuration pictured in the centre of the chart, which looks like a Mystic Rectangle, although it is not made up of squares and sextiles but septiles and trans-septiles. Indeed, these apparently minor aspects reveal a singularly important link between the Moon and Uranus and the Ascendant and Uranus. And, as I mentioned earlier, septiles bring a very fated theme to an event. And if there is one planet synonymous with eruptions, it is Uranus.

As you may note, Mars at 27 degrees of Taurus is some six degrees away from ground-breaking Uranus and is fast approaching a conjunction which is set to take place on 3/4 July.

This double earthquake in Venezuela comes at a time when earthquake activity appears to be increasing globally. On Thursday, a massive magnitude 6.9 eruption occurred in the North Pacific Ocean close to Japan’s shores and a couple of hours ago, a 5.6 earthquake occurred just west of Tokyo. On Wednesday, a 5.6 earthquake hit the Willits area of northern California, which is not known for seismic activity, although it is none too far away from the San Andreas fault.

I have spoken before about this strange sense that life is speeding up, and that one earth-shattering event follows another giving us barely any time to absorb the one before, and although time is not accelerating, nor is our world teetering on its axis, our perception is changing and we very definitely living through an unprecedented and highly volatile period. Everything, everywhere, all at once. Fortunately, we have the astrology to reflect such a phenomenon, and I have written and spoken about the important alignments that have come and gone, and those that lie ahead. And we have one of those looming in mid-to late July.

First though, next week. On Monday, a full moon in Capricorn occurs at the same time as Mercury turns retrograde. And as the week goes by Mars draws ever nearer Uranus and the Sun ever closer to a square to Saturn. Maybe we are already perceiving the effects of these earth-shattering influences or there may be more to come.

I am, however, coming down fairly heavily on seismic events to come, whether indeed the earth heaves or events are explosive and life-changing.

Friday Bite 19 June 2026

Turning Points

“By President Trump’s own terms, the war is a failure. The Iranian regime is intact and its military wing more empowered, while the Iranian people are more impoverished, repressed and desperate…. The only ‘achievement’ of the ceasefire is the likely re-opening [of] the Strait of Hormuz—which was open before the war started. And we will apparently pay Iran to do so…. Antony Blinken, former US Secretary of State, 17 June

“People who disagree with the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] are either jealous, bad people or stupid.” Donald Trump, 18 June.

“If Ukraine burns, then your Moscow will burn as well.”, Volodymir Zelenskey, 17 June.

EENY MEENY MINY moe, where shall I begin? It has been yet another momentous week in a year like no other. Maybe I’ll start on Sunday, Donald Trump’s eightieth birthday, which, despite warnings that it would be a complete washout due to violent storms, was celebrated in trailer-trash style with cage-fights under an 80-foot claw on the green and pleasant White House lawn – a spitting distance from the newly painted Reflecting Pool, now a sludgy green covered in algae. As I suggested in last week’s Bite, Mr Trump was able to claim a victory on his birthday by announcing that an agreement had been reached between the United States and Iran. It took until Wednesday for the Memorandum of Understanding to be signed, by which time Venus and Pluto had aligned with the Moon squaring a Scorpio Midheaven. More on this shortly.

Earlier on Sunday, British armed forces intercepted and boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker sailing under a Cameroonian flag in the Channel, some twenty miles off the coast of the Isle of Wight. It was the first time the United Kingdom had led a naval capture since the legal framework to perform such an act was put in place in March. It was not the first time Russian vessels had passed through these same waters.

Russia did not take long to retaliate. On Tuesday, a Russian warship, The Admiral Grigorovich, stationed in the same area, fired shots across the bow of a 40-foot yacht owned by a retired British couple. According to the Kelveys, the Grigorovich sent neither radio messages nor flares before firing shots. Russia, however, claimed the yacht was on a collision course with the warship, although it has been confirmed that the couple was a good 500 metres from the Grigorovich and sailing in a south-easterly direction toward France.

It has been a very, very bad week for Russia. In the early hours of Thursday, Ukraine launched its biggest attack on the capital. Waves of drones hit a major oil refinery blanketing the suburbs in smoke and flames and necessitating the closure of Moscow’s airports. And while the refinery burned, lines of vehicles formed around Moscow’s gas stations. (Rationing has already been implemented.) The drone strikes came as a response to Russia’s attack last week on one of Ukraine’s most iconic buildings – the 1000-year-old Kyiv–Pechersk Lavra – according to the United Nations, “a masterpiece of Ukrainian art”.

If you consider these developments alongside Zelensky’s recent open letter to Putin, calling for a meeting to find a way to peace – a clear indication that the Ukrainian president feels he is in a position of strength – it seems as though Russia might be on the backfoot and certainly struggling economically, signalling a turn in the tide of the war in Ukraine. Thirty thousand Russian soldiers are lost every month. How is that sustainable?

Already, Uranus is in range of Putin’s natal Moon (2 degrees Gemini) and Russia’s Moon (3 degrees Virgo) while Saturn is closely opposing Putin’s Sun and Pluto conjoining Russia’s Saturn. All of which suggests Russia is ripe for revolution or at least a season of major social and political unrest. Of course, a wounded animal can be dangerous, as former major general and lawmaker in the Putin government, Andrei Guruhyov illustrated. “We must strike the enemy mercilessly and without hesitation… eliminate the entire leadership, destroy all command centres and bring the entire industrial sector to its knees.”.

Here in Great Britain, there is a not-so-quiet revolution taking place in the Labour government. Prime minister Starmer, already seriously wounded, is grimly sticking to his guns and insisting that he was elected to do a job by the British people and, by Jove, he’s going to keep on doing it. However, the victory of Andy Burnham in Thursday’s by-election in Makersfield could prove a bridge too far. Clearly, Burnham is a fine politician and has proved himself capable of great leadership in his nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester, so the question is not if he can take-over as prime minister but when.

The above sunrise chart is the best we can do since there is no known time of birth for Andy Burnham, however, I would hazard a guess, given his appearance, that he has Cancer rising. As it is, we know he is a Sun Capricorn – the Moon, Venus and Mercury also in this Saturn-ruled sign – and he has Mars in Pisces. He is thus both a dreamer and a realist. Organized, sensible, reliable (to a point) and strong. Venus and the Sun, and possibly the Moon, are all squaring Uranus so he has some trailblazing capacities and he’s not afraid to buck a trend. However, you wouldn’t want to cross him. He has the great benefit of a Jupiter-Saturn opposition, which provides a perfect balance between optimism and realism and gives him a powerful sense of purpose.

Given his progressions and transits, there is little to show for this hugely significant moment in his life – Saturn squaring Venus is hardly the epitome of unbridled joy – so we must assume that the angles of the chart are being transited by Jupiter or one of the outer planets, but Pluto is squaring his Jupiter-Saturn opposition, and that spells transformation in capital letters.

We must now wait to see how this transition in power pans out. Even though as we approach the end of the month with its explosive and unsettling configurations, I’m not sure there will be a leadership contest. If Starmer means what he says that such a contest is bad for government and not in the best interests of the country, then he must, with all that Libran content in his natal chart (see last week’s Bite) agree to a civilised hand-over of power.

There’s going to be a lot of Machiavellian goings on behind closed doors this weekend.

AND SO TO the memorandum of understanding. Somewhat surprisingly, Donald Trump signed the memorandum just before the post conference dinner on Wednesday night. Expectations were that it would happen today (Friday) in Geneva, but now even the scheduled talks are off due to Israel launching a wave of deadly attacks on southern Lebanon. 

Hours before the memorandum was signed, the United States revealed its contents. I’m not going to run through them here, but you can instead read former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s thoughts on the matter, which I’ve included at the top of this article. And it’s a view almost universally shared. This declaration amounts to nothing less than a capitulation for the United States.  And as if to press home the point, the other peace treaty to be signed at the Palace of Versailles one hundred and seventeen years ago, almost to the day, was the Treaty of Versailles, which officially marked Germany’s surrender after World War One.

I do not know the exact moment Donald Trump placed his signature on the MOU, but it would have been somewhere between 22:10 and 22:30 on the night of the seventeenth. Trump arrived at the Palace of Versailles at 10 pm for the dinner, and signed the document surrounded by members of the G7 before the meal was served. The Ascendant moved into Capricorn just after 22:05 and would have reached 5 degrees of Capricorn by 22:30. Whatever the case, Venus was exactly opposed to Pluto, and the Moon barely a minute away from a conjunction to Venus, all of which was squaring the Midheaven.

Poetry in motion.

Venus, as I have mentioned before, isn’t all sweetness and light. She may represent love, peace and harmony, but in her most ancient form, she was also the goddess of war. My reading of this powerful Venus-Pluto opposition is that each side must behave impeccably for the memorandum to have any chance of succeeding. And with Israel not bounden to the interim agreement and already defying Trump’s orders, I think we can see where this is going. Today, just over thirty-six hours since the signing of the memorandum, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, and it will remain closed, apparently, until Israel withdraws from Lebanon. And the longer it stays closed or barely functioning, the threat of economic catastrophe hangs over the world