Friday Bite 14 November 2025

 Moon Shadow

“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy.” Donald Trump, Truth Social

“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” BBC spokesperson

“The idea that an American president would sue the British broadcaster, paid for by British taxpayers— sue for a billion dollars for a 12-second edit of a speech he made is pretty astonishing,” Jane Martinson, Professor of newspaper and journalism.

IN THE WANING cycle of the Moon, chapters end and situations that have peaked, wind down. And so it was that five days after the full moon in Taurus, the US Government shut-down ended. The shutdown had begun on 1 October after Congress failed to agree a spending plan for 2026. Over the course of the next forty-three days, the Republican-controlled House continued to represent the bill and the Democrat-controlled Senate continued to reject it. On 10 November, a handful of Democrats caved in and the appropriations legislation was passed. In those forty-three days, 900,000 federal employees were furloughed, another two million worked without pay, SNAP food payments were suspended and thousands of flights were cancelled.

Just why some Democrats decided enough was enough when the party was riding high after wins in the gubernatorial elections is open to opinion, but it appears to be more than a coincidence that within a day of Donald Trump signing the bill, some 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of the convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein were released, including email correspondence between Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell and Epstein and author Michael Wolff. Within hours of the publication of damaging emails, House Republicans released another tranche of documents to counter “the Democratic effort to cherry-pick documents and create a fake narrative to slander President Trump”.

Dear oh dear, why does President Trump keep having to defend himself from outrageous slurs on his character and leadership. He was busy seeking to protect his good name earlier in the week, when a storm broke over a BBC Panorama documentary in which two separate parts of his speech to his supporters on January 6 were spliced together making it appear that he had encouraged the Capitol Hill riots. Heaven forfend!

Concerns about the documentary which had aired in October 2024, had been raised in a memo sent by an independent external advisor to the BBC; in response, the BBC had refused to accept there had been a breach of standards. On 3 November, The Telegraph published the memo and in consequence, last Monday, Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to the BBC demanding it immediately retract the documentary, issue an apology and compensate him to the tune of one beeliion dollars. The BBC was given a deadline of Friday, 14 November, 22:00.

On Thursday, the BBC issued a direct apology to the President, admitting that it had made “an error of judgement” but it refused to pay compensation. In the meantime, the Director General of the BBC and the CEO of BBC News resigned.

The British Broadcasting Company was established under a royal charter and operates under an agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, currently Labour minister, Lisa Nandy. The company was founded on 18 October, 1922. The first radio broadcast – a news programme – took place almost four weeks later on 14 November. The organization became a corporation on 1 January, 1927 and it made its first television broadcast on 2 November 1936. Thus, there is more than one chart to consider for this hugely influential organization.

There are, however, common denominators in all four charts: 23 – 29 degrees of the mutable signs, and angular Neptunes – conjunct the Ascendant at the founding of the BBC, conjunct the IC at its first radio broadcast and conjunct the Descendant at the time of the first television broadcast. Quite fitting when you think that Neptune is the planet that governs the unseen world – and that includes how sound and images reach us in our sitting rooms.

At the heart of the debacle over the Trump documentary is the accusation that the BBC has a political bias that leans left rather than right. Certainly, it has just fallen foul of a far-right attack on its legitimacy, but it has survived such allegations before and will do so again. The corporation has had a difficult few years with scandals surrounding its leading figures and some very public resignations, which Saturn’s and Neptune’s transits of the latter degrees of Pisces stand testament to. On 31 December 2027, its royal charter comes up for review, thus it has a relatively short time in which to perform a root and branch review of its funding, programming and its purpose and, perhaps most important of all, reestablish its impartiality.

The charts of the BBC’s first broadcast, its first television broadcast and the corporation itself have planets between 8 and 10 degrees of the fixed signs and will thus be the focus for a Pluto transit in 2027/28, so we can expect to see a radically new version of “Auntie” as she heads into the next decade. But gone? No. It’s like the monarchy, a corporation for all seasons.

And speaking of the monarchy, it is King Charles’ 77th birthday today.

In tandem with the BBC it’s been a rubbish time for the monarchy. The egregious Yorks have been sacked/fallen on their swords but it’s probably going to take a few more nips and tucks to reshape the monarchy into something more appropriate for the times. And for that, we must wait for William. In a way, Charles is the last of the old guard. He has come to the throne at a time of national and international conflict and discord, a time when divisions between the haves and the have nots, left and right are at an extreme. No longer can the royal family be seen to enjoy such privilege and wealth, its members must roll up their sleeves, ride their bicycles and make do and mend like the rest of us.

We also know that King Charles is not going to have a long reign. His health is a concern, although he manages an extraordinary schedule for a man in his late seventies, let alone someone undergoing cancer treatment. With this in mind, I thought I would look at his solar return, which will cover the next twelve months.

I’m not the greatest champion of the solar return.  Sometimes, in pretrospect, they turn out to have been spot-on and sometimes not. So, I’m going to make a point of returning to this solar return this time next year.

What initially strikes me as significant is the presence of Mars in Sagittarius on the Midheaven. Any planet on an angle acquires greater strength, and since Charles has a natal Mars in Sagittarius, Mars becomes even more important. Mars is conjunct Mercury, so I would suggest this is going to be a period in which the King will be expressing himself forcefully, travelling widely and taking some very courageous, if not controversial, steps. The Sun occupies the ninth house, so the theme of travel, interest in foreign cultures and creeds is going to be strong. The Sun is widely opposed to Uranus, although this exact transit took place in 2024, so its unpredictable influence is fading.

The Sun is also part of a Grand trine together with Jupiter and Saturn and Neptune, and since Uranus opposes the Sun, this configuration morphs into a Kite. In a nutshell, the next twelve months are going to contain some pretty shocking and certainly groundbreaking developments.

I also noted that the degree of the Ascendant in the solar return chart is that of the King’s Pluto, which brings the theme of transformation into the foreground.  Death and rebirth, elimination and reformation – all Plutonic themes. Perhaps the next twelve months will allow him to show us that he is not the caretaker King but the King who championed the remaking of the monarchy.

Friday Bite 7 November 2025

All Change is Good

“The Sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” Zohran Mamdani, 5 November.

“So, if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up,” Zohran Mamdani, 5 November

“Our energy costs are down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down… Thanksgiving meals [are] 25 percent down. So, I don’t want to hear about affordability.” Donald Trump, 6 November.

AS BEFITS A week with a Mars-Uranus opposition and a full moon, shock and awe were in plentiful supply. Aside from the seemingly endless examples of random violence, governmental gaffes and political contortionism, the election of New York City’s first Muslim, democratic socialist mayor and the democratic rally, as evidenced by wins in gubernatorial elections and the redrawing of congressional district boundaries in California, have done much to keep hope alive for American democracy.

The Trump administration has been given a bloody nose by American voters but what we know about the president is that when anything goes against him, he doubles down on the very issues that have caused outrage and uproar.

Another great truism in politics is that when things get tough at home, leaders head abroad. And Donald Trump is in a class of his own when it comes to the politics of distraction. Which in this case probably means our attention is about to be turned to Venezuela. Epstein who? Mamdani who?

I’m not going to focus all my attention on the prospect of the United States going to war with Venezuela, but for the first time in all the many years American administrations, including the first Trump administration, have sought to remove President Nicolas Maduro, there are signs they may well succeed this time.

The above chart is ideal for examining the influences which are playing such a big part in the upsets, controversies and breakthroughs currently taking place.

Zohran Mamdani was declared the winner of the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday evening, some hours before the full moon in Scorpio, however, the end of a major chapter for the largest city in America is writ large in the above chart. Jupiter, the ruler of the horoscope is at the apex of a Kite configuration involving Mars, Uranus, Pluto, Neptune and Saturn, and since the Mars-Uranus opposition is on an angle (the Ascendant-Descendant axis) its effect is even more pronounced. The call of revolution is sounding long and loud. The Mars-Uranus opposition is also the central strut of a second Kite and the upper edge of yet another configuration, a Cradle. When several planets are aligned in different signs but on the same degree, they are resonating at the same pitch and generating a powerful vibration. This is why so many huge events are taking place at this time.

As you can see from Mamdani’s natal chart above, I have drawn in the Kite configuration to show you how instrumental it is in bringing him to power at this time. Transiting Pluto is conjunct Saturn and his Descendant and opposing transiting Jupiter. And Jupiter-Pluto combos are all about mass movements and the use and abuse of power.

On the face of it, you would be hard pressed to forecast a win under such “difficult” influences, that is until you consider what an ineluctable destiny Mamdani has in store. It’s going to be one formidable hurdle after another.

Transiting Pluto is not only on the Descendant angle but squaring Mamdani’s natal Mars-Mercury conjunction in Scorpio. He may be a charming, mild-mannered Libra but he has a steel backbone. And since the Sun, Mars and Mercury are all squaring an angular Saturn, he can be ruthless, acerbic and manipulative.

Thrilled as New York democrats may be to have one of their own in charge of their city, as a Muslim he is not supportive of Israel, and New York has a huge and powerful Jewish community. And this is not the only hurdle Mamdani faces. He has very little experience of running large organizations and the fabulous promises he has made New Yorkers may prove near-impossible to fulfil. And then there’s Donald Trump who has made it clear he’ll fight him every inch of the way.

I forecast a very short honeymoon.

I thought you might be interested in looking at the chart of New York City to see if it too reflects such a sea change in its existence.

There are, as far as I know, three charts for New York: the first – 16 May 1626: the purchase of the island of Manhattan by Dutch Settlers; the second marks the first charter of the city: 7 May, 1686 and the third represents the joining of the five boroughs into one big city of New York on 1 January 1898.

Looking at all three, the above chart for January 1898 has the most to offer in regard to the present time and looking back to 9-11, the most pivotal event in New York’s history. New York City as we now know it was born on a Saturn-Pluto opposition – Pluto at 13 degrees of Gemini and Saturn at 7 degrees of Sagittarius. On 9-11, the prevailing Saturn-Pluto opposition had reached 12 degrees Sagittarius (Pluto) and 14 degrees Gemini (Saturn) so, not only was there a near-exact mirroring of New York’s natal Saturn-Pluto opposition, but those degrees are also those of the USA’s natal Ascendant – Descendant axis.

At this moment in time Uranus is opposing NYC’s natal Uranus (it is experiencing the infamous Uranus-opposition at which everything turns upside down) and, of course, at the time of Mamdani’s election, Mars was conjunct the city’s natal Uranus. And for added impact, Neptune, Saturn and the recent solar eclipse at 29 degrees of Virgo are all squaring the city’s natal Mars-Venus conjunction.

Lah de dah.

Before I get into Venezuela and Maduro, I want to show what effect this extraordinary triple alignment is having on Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world. Yesterday Tesla shareholders approved a plan to offer him close to a trillion dollars to grow the company to eight trillion in value.

Yet again, it would seem counter-intuitive that a transit of Uranus to a Saturn-Neptune opposition could preside over such a massive increase in wealth and power. But, if we have learned anything from astrology, we must know that this apparent piece of great good fortune is a poisoned chalice.

As you can see from the above chart, the present Mars-Uranus opposition, which is the linchpin of one Kite configuration, is triggering Maduro’s natal Sun-Mercury conjunction at zero/one degrees of Sagittarius and widely squaring his natal Jupiter-Pluto opposition.

Venezuela’s natal moon at 2 degrees of Sagittarius is likewise triggered by the Kite, plus it’s Mars is to be found at 25 degrees of Pisces (currently conjoined by transiting Saturn) while its Sun at 29 degrees of Virgo is opposed by transiting Neptune and the focus for the recent solar eclipse.

I rest my case.

While there is a large body of opinion that considers the only war to be waged by the United States on Venezuela is one of psychology and bluff, there are some who believe military action is imminent. And I am one of them. I think it highly likely that “shots will be fired” in the next couple of weeks, if not on or around the new moon in Scorpio which is closely opposed to Uranus and forming a similar set of configurations.

Onward and starward.