Friday Bite 28 August 2026

Poetry and Peril

“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked…We cannot accept what they’ve offered and we will not give what they’ve asked.” Prime Minister Mark Carney, 21 August

“We took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it. So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake [Lake America, formerly Lake Ontario], now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.” Donald Trump, 27 August

“… whether you’re a Democrat, an independent, or someone who has generally voted Republican in the past, most voters want the same things right now: to be led and represented by normal people who are good at getting things done. People want leaders who respect those who disagree or vote differently instead of calling them the enemy. People who know that God does not belong to a political party in the United States of America. Most voters want to elect leaders who are not simply trying to rebuild the past, but trying to create something new and better.” Pete Buttigieg, Transport Secretary, 17 August

POETRY AND PERIL? If you are confused by the title, poetry refers to the death of beloved Dolly Parton who left us on Tuesday morning. She was an extraordinary songwriter and performer, and a philanthropist who never forgot her roots. The peril relates to Russia and Iran and the escalating threat they both pose to the world. On Tuesday, CIA’s director, John Ratcliffe, made a flying visit to Moscow, which has fuelled speculation that this was no ordinary diplomatic mission but one with a much more serious message for Russia.

If you are still nurturing doubts that eclipses preside over life-changing events, take a moment to look at footage of the tsunami river of mud, ice and water cascading at speed into the valleys and towns of Nepal and Tibet. In particular, the mountain of water that rose above the government buildings at the Gyirong border post, sweeping away buses, trucks and people running for their lives. Almost 2000 people are feared dead. If that doesn’t reflect a lunar eclipse in Pisces squared by Uranus, I don’t know what does.

And this morning we learned of the death of King Harald V of Norway – a Pisces with the lunar eclipse on his natal Sun and Norway’s Saturn.

I’M GOING TO begin in the Himalayas. At 8:37 on the morning of 26 August, an enormous section of a glacier broke off and fell onto the valley floor of Nepal’s Langtang National Park. So powerful was the event that it was initially thought to be an earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter scale. Here is a picture of that moment.

Mars is culminating and squaring the Saturn-Neptune midpoint and the Ascendant-Descendant axis. All three planets are bordering the angles of the chart making their combined effect even more powerful, and in this case, destructive. Mercury and the Sun are within two degrees of the lunar eclipse, which took place on Friday morning.

This event becomes even more significant when we look at Nepal’s natal chart. Natal Pluto is to be found at 9 degrees Capricorn and within minutes of an opposition to transiting Mars and a square to the Ascendant-descendant axis at the time of the glacier-slip. Nepal’s natal Neptune at 5 degrees of Virgo is conjunct the lunar eclipse and its natal moon is squaring the eclipse.  Nepal’s natal Sun is but three degrees away from the eclipse. And there is more. Neptune is currently squaring Nepal’s natal Saturn and Pluto squaring natal Uranus.

Now, all these connections could have manifested in many ways. Revolution or war could have broken out, the government might have collapsed or the president die. Instead nature did what it does best, teach us about the perils of disregarding Mother Earth and the random nature of geological events.

KING HARALD OF Norway died on Friday morning in hospital while receiving treatment for a bacterial infection. He was eighty-nine years old and had occupied the throne for thirty-five years. He had been at the helm during some of the country’s most turbulent times, and he was much loved by the Norwegian people. His son, Haaken Magnus who inherits the throne met with government ministers at the Royal Palace earlier today and announced his accession. There will be no coronation since Norway abandoned such royal ceremonies over a century ago. King Haaken VIII has adopted his late father’s royal motto, “Everything for Norway”.

King Harald’s reign has not been without controversy, particularly this year. In the spring, the United States Department of Justice released a tranche of documents related to the Epstein affair, including emails, some of which involved the crown princess, Mette Marie. Close on the heels of this unwelcome revelation the crown princess’s son by her first marriage, Marius Borg Hoiby, was convicted of several drug-related crimes and multiple charges of rape. He was sentenced to four years in prison and is currently under house arrest awaiting an appeal.

There are strong links between the Norwegian and British royal families. King Harald and King Charles were cousins – their great, great grandfather was King Edward VII – and both have had to contend with family “black sheep” and developments of a deeply embarrassing nature, to put it politely. King Harald’s daughter, Martha Louise, married an American shaman and later, in 2022, was forced to step down from royal duties, the couple attributing the decision to public criticism of their marriage. Her husband is black.

As you will see from the above chart, Friday’s lunar eclipse straddled the late King’s MC-IC axis, which was in turn squared by transiting Uranus. King Harald’s Sun at 2 degrees of Pisces was within two degrees of the lunar eclipse, and since Norway’s natal Saturn falls at 2 degrees of Pisces, the lunar eclipse also made its mark on the country. We should also note that Norway’s Venus, the ruler of the 10th house of leaders, rulers and government, is placed at 4 degrees of Taurus, and is thus not only squared by transiting Pluto but triggered by all the outer planets and the recent basket configuration of late July.

The new King has become monarch as Mars reaches his Midheaven and squares Saturn. In the last twenty-four hours transiting Venus has passed over his natal Mars-Uranus opposition, all of which suggests that he has come to the throne unexpectedly and not at the best time for him. Pluto, the ruler of his chart, is squaring his Ascendant-descendant axis and will conjoin Jupiter 2028, although it is already in orb, which is descriptive of his transformation from crown prince to King, head of the family and the country.

And now to Russia.

IN RECENT WEEKS I have looked at Russia’s and Putin’s charts, pointing out that the recent solar eclipse fell on Putin’s Midheaven while Uranus has been hovering over the Russian president’s Moon and squaring the country’s natal moon. I have been expecting dramatic events in Russia, and although we haven’t seen a revolt, a coup or a regime change, the sounds coming out of Moscow are concerning to say the least. Which brings us to John Ratcliffe’s clandestine trip to Russia where he met with Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB intelligence service.

The last time a director of the CIA made a similar clandestine trip to Moscow was in November 2021. Willliam J. Burns flew to Moscow as Russian troops massed on the borders of Ukraine. He went to Russia with the express purpose of informing the administration that the United States knew of its intent to invade Ukraine and warned that there would be consequences.

Clearly the warning had a great effect. Russia invaded Ukraine three months later.

The CIA has long maintained communication channels with Russian intelligence services, so a direct one-to-one meeting with the head of the FSB has nothing to do with diplomacy and everything to do with an immediate and pressing issue. According to sources, Ratcliffe’s mission to Moscow was to straight-talk Bortnikov regarding the war in Ukraine. He may have advised Moscow to cut a deal before Russia’s military and economic situation gets any worse. CIA analysts have for some time questioned whether Putin’s advisors have given him an honest assessment of the war’s trajectory and toll.

In the past few days, Putin has made it clear that if the UK continues to supply Ukraine with drones and help the country in any way in its war with Russia, there will be consequences. And on a lunar eclipse, you can’t dismiss such threats as mere sabre-rattling. On the face of it, it seems madness to attempt to widen the scope of the war in Ukraine and test NATO’s resolve, but that is to forget what Russia is, and who the Russian people are. This was a country that lost almost eleven million men in World War II: they survived an invasion by Hitler but came back to defeat Nazi Germany. Russians die for their country. Such a love for their homeland runs in their blood.

So, we must as usual, wait and see what this lunar eclipse will preside over in terms of Russia’s next move. However, if it was John Ratcliffe’s intent to warn Russia to make peace with Ukraine, based on past experience, I don’t think it will make a spit of difference.

Friday Bite 21 August 2026

Eclipse Season

“Never before in American history has an attorney general been confirmed who was as corrupt as Todd Blanche. The Department of Justice is already in shambles… Todd Blanche now becomes the symbol of Donald Trump’s corruption of the rule of law in America and the actual ruin of the Department of Justice of the United States. This is another shameful act of acquiescence, if not obeisance, by the Senate Republicans; they will bear this badge of shame the rest of their lives. Judge J Michael Luttig, 15 August.

“While the sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks,” said Ossoff. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job…He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.” Georgia Senator, John Ossof, 15 August

“I have no time schedule… I’m not in a hurry…the midterms have nothing to do with my thinking…If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them” Donald Trump, 17 August

HOURS AFTER I posted last week’s Friday bite, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck close to the island of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago. At least 83 people lost their lives with more than a thousand injured and displaced. The earthquake generated a small tsunami. It was the second major quake in five days, each bracketing the total solar eclipse of 12 August.

There were other kinds of earthquakes too. A podcast on Lila Astrology turned out to be the vehicle for the demise of one of astrology’s most revered number, Steven Forrest. Slow to start, the outrage gathered momentum and became an avalanche. Despite a humbling apology by Forrest on 4 August, his freefall could not be stopped. The upcoming UAC (United Astrology Conference) and the NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research) removed him from their speakers list and the Astrology University dropped him from the faculty, and there were calls for his excommunication and his books to be banned.

In the wake of Karoline Leavitt’s departure from her post as the White House Press Secretary (on the day of the solar eclipse), rumours began to circulate that her decision may not have been entirely due to her desire to be a “Mom to her two young children”. That the president she had loyally supported left her to an uncertain fate on Air Force One, along with other White House officials and staffers, journalists and crew when he covertly transferred to another plane, may well have tipped the balance.

Last week, I suggested that the “great plane switcheroo” could come back to haunt him further down the line, since some people won’t forget such a betrayal of trust. And, of course, all this came to light on a total solar eclipse, and even the most seemingly insignificant event can have major consequences if it occurs at the time of an eclipse.

One person who did accompany Mr Trump on his plane from Turkey to the United Kingdom was Natalie Harp. Ms Harp has been in Trump’s orbit for some years. She types his Truth Social posts and is rumoured to be his closest ally, his “gatekeeper” and “comfort blanket”. She is devoted to the president – sees him as her saviour – since it was due to his intervention that she was able to partake in an experimental treatment for cancer and was cured. He saved her life.

Thanks to Georgia senator, John Ossef whose comments about her travelling with Trump on their apparently defenceless flying palace, the whole world knows about their close association.

Last and not least of the bombshells, on Thursday it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be returning to the United Kingdom with their children.

Let’s start with the Indonesian earthquake.

AT 5:58 AM on the island of Flores, the Sun was rising and Uranus, culminating. The Sun and the Ascendant at 21 and 22 degrees of Leo respectively, were closely conjunct the degree of the total solar eclipse. On this occasion 28 degrees of Gemini and the other mutable signs was not present. However, Uranus was conjunct the Midheaven and part of a major Kite configuration involving Neptune, Pluto and Venus. The outer planets are often to be seen on the angles of the charts of eruptions: such placements do not cause earthquakes, but they have an uncanny habit of being where you might expect them to be when the earth moves, literally and figuratively.

AS STEVEN FORREST chatted amicably to his Lila co-founders – Ricky Williams and Linnea Miron – on their podcast of the 23 July, nothing could have been further from their minds than the possibility that their conversation would topple one of astrology’s gods from his Olympian plinth. While discussing racism, Mr Forrest used “the N-word” and to add insult to outrage went on to talk about his ancestral ties to the Ku Klux Klan. It was all said in the nicest possible way, but in this day and age, you can’t row back from “the N-word”.

Mr Forrest’s chart is another example of poetry in motion in regard to the transits and progressions of the time.

A Sun-Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn and Saturn on the Midheaven provide early clues to his ascendancy in the world of astrology. The Sun-Jupiter conjunction breeds success, popularity and, in the second house, no shortage of money. Saturn on the Midheaven suggests a slow rise to power but one that stands the test of time. He is a serious man, a serious astrologer. His feisty Moon in Aries, is a welcome foil to the ambitious, hard-working, persistent – dogged even – pursuit of excellence and renown, providing him with wit, humour and a dare-devil side. Mercury, the ruler of the Midheaven is placed at 29 degrees 59 minutes of Capricorn – the anaretic degree – suggesting many lifetimes of learning, teaching and mentoring have culminated and coalesced in this current incarnation.

So how, why, at the age seventy-seven did this happen to him?

Where do I start. How about solar progressed Midheaven and Saturn reaching the natal Ascendant. The Midheaven – life-direction, role in life – meets the most personal point in the natal chart. Not exactly in-my-end-is-my-beginning, but there is a sense that it has all come down to this – all those decades of work, effort and struggle (Saturn conjunct the Midheaven) have reached their defining moment, and it is very, very personal.

Solar progressed Neptune has reached three degrees of Capricorn thereby squaring his natal Moon in Aries while transiting Neptune is conjoining his Moon – a double whammy if ever there was one. And what do we know about Neptune? We know that it presides over loss, treachery, sacrifice and all manner of weird and undermining experiences. And for good measure, Saturn is currently opposing his natal Neptune. While this combination can turn dreams and visions into reality it can also shatter illusions.

While the recent solar eclipse at 20 degrees of Leo was widely squaring his Ascendant-descendant axis, it is the upcoming lunar eclipse (28 August) flanking his MC-IC axis and conjoining Saturn that effectively brings down the curtain on his professional life. And this lunar eclipse is squaring Uranus, which in turn is squaring his natal Saturn thus supporting the sudden and unexpected nature of his demise.

Clearly, it all comes down to karma. Deeds done in this lifetime or those perpetrated lifetimes ago have brought us to this point in time where accounts must be settled. It may be that Forest is too beloved and honoured to be left out in the cold for long, but a return to the fold isn’t likely to take months but years. And time is short once you reach your eighth decade.

Those who are calling for extreme measures to be taken against Mr Forrest should take a moment to consider that people in glass houses really shouldn’t throw stones.

I WAS GOING to end with a brief foray into the whys and wherefores of the Sussex’s volte face, but it will have to wait for another time. At the moment, it is deeply fascinating to speculate how Meghan is going to manage to insert herself into country life in an English backwater. Let’s hope she’s packing plenty of wellies, woollens and sou’westers. Maybe she’ll thrive and join the local WI, handing on her recipes for carrot cake and winning rosettes for her blackberry jam…