Friday Bite 3 October 2025

Secrets and Shadows

“No more identity months, DEI officers, dudes in dresses; no more climate change worshippers, no more division, distractions or gender delusions; no more debris… we’re done with that S**t.” Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, 1 October.

“I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military – National Guard, but military. Because we’re going into Chicago very soon…And: San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. They’re very unsafe places. And we’re gonna straighten them out one-by-one.[ It ] this is gonna be a major part for some of the people in this room. It’s a war, too. It’s a war from within.”” Donald Trump, Commander in Chief, 1 October

“I won’t do it anymore. I won’t go to France, Denmark or Copenhagen anymore…But seriously, we don’t have drones that can reach Lisbon.” Vladimir Putin, 2 October

ON THURSDAY At 9:30 in the morning, a man armed with a knife drove into a small group of pedestrians outside a synagogue in a suburb of Manchester. He engaged in a six-minute “stabbing spree” during which one man was killed and three others were injured. He moved on to the synagogue where, fortunately, he was unable to gain entry. At 9:34 armed police arrived. They shot dead the attacker, in the process shooting two members of the congregation, killing one and injuring the other. The perpetrator was of Syrian extraction but a British citizen. He had lived in Manchester for thirty-two of his thirty-five years.

It was the terror attack long-feared and long expected. And it happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

There are some truly shocking statistics behind this attack. In the first six months of 2025, there were 1,521 anti-Semitic attacks in the United Kingdom. (The greatest number of attacks for decades occurred in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre.) Given the constant footage of a devastated Gaza and the daily toll of Palestinian deaths –  64,715 to date – it is almost surprising that a major terrorist attack on the Jewish community has not happened until now.

I always experience a quandary when I put up a chart of a tragic event, but in the pursuit of becoming better astrologers, I believe we should examine significant events in order to learn from them. As I mentioned in last week’s Bite, a moment in time governs many, many events, yet they will all reflect the astrology of that moment.

At that moment in time, Mars was rising in Scorpio and precisely squaring the Moon in Aquarius which was conjunct Pluto. Mars rising in Scorpio squaring the Moon and Pluto is the epitome of an act of passion. Passion can be driven by love or anger. In this case, from one perspective, this combination reflected the pent-up hatred of one man for a cause he had come to believe was “evil”. From the perspective of the victims, this was an unprovoked and deadly terror attack on them by an evil perpetrator. That Pluto, the ruler of the chart, is conjunct the Moon and in the third house, suggests the attack sent a powerful message.

That this terrorist attack occurred eleven days after a solar eclipse is also highly significant. The eclipse was closely opposed to Saturn and Neptune, which are currently conjoined on Great Britain’s natal Moon (29 degrees 4ʹ Pisces). The Moon in mundane astrology represents the people, and since the Moon is to be found in the 12^th house of religion and secret enemies, the symbolism couldn’t be more appropriate.

Also significant is the rising degree: 24 Taurus is Great Britain’s Neptune while the country’s Uranus (28 degrees 26ʹ Sagittarius) is currently being squared by the Saturn-Neptune conjunction.

As we know, Britain is going through a trying period – Broken Britain as some are calling us – so “secret enemies “could also be interpreted as the migrants entering the country, via small boats, in the process putting an ever-increasing drain on the economy. And then there’s the enemy-within – those who undermine Britain and seek to overturn its democratic principles…

WHICH BRINGS ME on to the subject of drones over Europe. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin poured scorn on the notion that Russia had anything to do with drones flying over airports in various northern European countries – Munich, Germany, being the latest to shut down its airport. Putin claims that Russia hasn’t the capacity to send its drones such a distance, however, it appears that a shadow tanker, the Boracay, anchored in the North Sea, off the coast of France, may have been the launch pad. Secrets and shadows – stuff of the twelfth house.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction, currently hovering over Britain’s Moon in the twelfth house is also reflected in today’s appointment of the first female archbishop of Canterbury. Sarah Mullally, formerly the bishop of London, and before that a nurse, has become the 106^th archbishop of Canterbury. Hats off to the Church of England, or should that be mitres off.

There are a couple of other developments that I should mention: the US government shut down and the grand gathering of top military personnel in Quantico.

I’m afraid I can’t get too steamed up about the shutdown, if only because it is just one outrage out of hundreds that have occurred – and on an almost daily level – since Donald Trump took office, however, the meeting of the mighty that took place on Tuesday at Marine Corps Base was awe-inspiring, and not in a good way. To hear the seriously unqualified Secretary of War fat-shaming the top brass seated before him was unseemly to say the least. That Hegseth was followed by a president who could barely keep track of his thoughts – “lost in the halls of history” as Tom Nichols of The Atlantic put it – piled shame on embarrassment.

I’m going to leave you with more of Tom Nichols’ thoughts.

In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?

Friday Bite 26 September 2025

Shadows and Foreshadows

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump… But we…will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right, but I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial and keep the faith.” James Comey, Instagram, 25 September.

“As Jewish professionals in medicine, public health, and related fields, we cannot remain silent in the face of a genocide being carried out against the Palestinians in Gaza by the state of Israel.” Open letter signed by 400 Jewish doctors and health professionals, 21 September.

“Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism, so taking Tylenol…er… is not good.” President Trump, White House press conference, 22 September.

ON WEDNESDAY SUPER typhoon Ragasa smashed into the coastline of eastern China, leaving a trail of destruction from Yanjiang City to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Here is a picture of that moment.

There were any number of events worthy of astrological representation over the last few days, but the symbolism of a super typhoon making landfall and the destruction that followed works for any number of eye-watering events of the past seven days. A lot of them beginning with the letter T: Typhoons, Tariffs, Tylenol, IdenTiTy cards and Trump’s speech at the United Nations. But let’s keep to the weather for the moment.

If you look back at some of the natural disasters of the past nine months, starting with the Los Angeles fires, the angular position of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction is significant. That this conjunction is falling close to the fixed star Scheat, which is associated with watery catastrophes, only adds to the significance. In January when fires devastated areas of Los Angeles, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction was rising, and when an 8.8 megathrust earthquake hit Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 30 July, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction was setting. And, as you can see from the above chart, Saturn and Neptune were rising as Typhoon Ragasa made landfall.

I am not saying that all natural disasters are bound to have the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in a prominent position, but when planets and configurations are angular their effect is more profound.

Increasingly, I am moving toward a more divinatory approach to horoscopes. I am seeing the horoscope as a moment in time, its symbolism reflecting the impact, the nature, the backstory and the potential of whatever is born of that moment. A child born at that moment on that day – in this case with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction rising – a decision taken in high places at that moment or two people meeting at that moment will have the equivalent of the awesome power of typhoon Ragasa behind them.

Which brings us back to some of the other game-changing events of the past seven days.

• The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and France recognize the State of Palestine.
• Sir Keir Starmer confirms plans for a digital ID scheme to be rolled out by 2027.
• Erica Kirk, widow of murdered far-right influencer, Charlie Kirk, takes the helm of Turning Point USA.
• Trump addresses the United Nations, and in a rambling speech consigns Europe and the United Kingdom to ruin over immigration, rubbish climate change and accuses London’s “terrible mayor” of instigating sharia law.
• Sara Ferguson, Duchess of York, has had her ties cut with seven charities over her email to the late, disgraced Jeffrey Epstien. Calls for her title to be removed grow.
• Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air.
• James Comey, former FBI director is indicted on charges of making false statements and obstructing justice.
• The US and Canada scrambled fighter jets on two occasions to identify and intercept Russian military planes closing in on Alaskan airspace.
• Unidentified drones that have been seen over Denmark, Norway and Sweden are considered to be “professional actors”. Russian aircraft seen over the Baltic near Latvia.

The shadow of Sunday’s solar eclipse falls on all the above developments, and we have yet to see their consequences. The Russian invasion of Europe’s and the United States’ airspace is hugely significant and it is clear to me that Putin is conducting a shadow war with the West – hence the title of this Friday Bite. Of huge significance too is the recognition of the State of Palestine and the pushback the Trump administration is receiving from leading figures in the world of entertainment and politics. And we have yet to see whether the US government will be forced to shut down through Democrats’ refusal to sign a bill that would keep it open. They have until zero hours Wednesday to reach an agreement.

As I said in my video about the forthcoming full moon in Aries, while we can seek the best from the configurations presiding over these times, we have to be realistic. Things are clearly going to get worse before they get better. This understanding is not aimed at generating fear but inspiring courage to fight the bullies and bogeys of our times because to shrink away and appease those who would crush us is only to invite our ruin.