Friday Bite 22 May 2020

If you listen carefully, you may just be able to hear the distant sound of a drumroll welcoming in one of the most event-full periods of 2020. On Wednesday, the Sun entered Gemini preparing the way for a new moon this Friday (22nd). Between now and late July there will be three eclipses, the first (5th June) kicking off an eighteen-month series on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis.

Eclipse seasons are game-changers and the events that happen from late May until late-July, and during the next eclipse period (mid-November to end-December) will affect political and national destinies. Leaders, especially those with planets on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis – put your hand up President Trump (Sun in Gemini opposition Moon in Sagittarius, itself a lunar eclipse) and Prime Minister Boris (three planets and the Sun in Gemini) – should take note. Actions taken at this time will come back to bite you in the posterior. And, of course, once again, we cannot rule out random acts of nature to interfere with life on planet Earth. The last eclipse (10th January this year) put its signature on covid-19 and the ensuing global crisis we continue to wrestle with.

Certain events this past week do nothing to allay fears that more turmoil and deepening uncertainty lie ahead of us. It is sad, if not seriously disconcerting, that Dr Fauci and other members of Team Science have been relegated to some dusty outpost on Planet Washington where they can no longer cast any doubt on the wisdom of Mr Trump’s actions to get the country moving or comment on his self-medication programme.

In this past six days, the US President has threatened to withhold essential election funding for two states intending to issue mail-in ballots for the election later this year; fired a fourth US State department Inspector General; warned the World Health Organization that the temporary freeze on funding would become permanent, and, last but not least, withdrew the United States from the 35-nation Open Skies Treaty. And while all this is taking place – not exactly under the radar but there’s only so much information you can take in – US relations with China continue to plunge new depths.

And speaking of China…

China has announced new security legislation for Hong Kong that has the capacity to curtail its freedoms. When Hong Kong was handed back to China in June 1997, the new constitution gave Hong Kongers the rights to “freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and demonstration” – rights denied the people on mainland China. The new legislation is expected to be passed in a matter of days at China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing.

The impending threat to their freedoms brought Hong Kong protesters out on the streets once more, Civic Party lawmaker, Dennis Kwok, maintaining the legislation represents, “the end of Hong Kong”.

Certainly, Hong Kong is a critical stage of its existence: Saturn, the ruler of the house of government and leadership, is hovering over Neptune, the planet of sacrifice and suffering, reflecting the struggle against an oppressive controlling force, although the island state has been through far worse astrologically speaking. It’s probably going to take until 2023 when Pluto passes over the same point and Uranus conjoins the Moon in Taurus combined with eclipses on the Taurus-Scorpio axis to finally settle the matter.

I wouldn’t say these transits hold out much promise for Hong Kong’s maintaining its semi-autonomy, but then China will be undergoing a Pluto transit of its ascendant and a Uranus opposition to its elevated Venus at the same time, indicative of a titanic struggle which it may well lose. Or perhaps, what we are looking at is a pyrrhic victory for China.

To return to the now, Mars will enter Aries on the 28th June, conjoining Hong Kong’s ascendant on the 4th of July, a matter of hours before the lunar eclipse in Capricorn. And with Hong Kong’s natal Mars at 5 degrees of Libra and China’s Sun at 7 degrees of Libra, not to mention the eclipse’s proximity to China’s natal Uranus, I think we can expect a return of the violent street protests of last year. Only this time with a lot more force from the agents of law and order.

Indeed, the Mars transit of Aries is troubling all round. Usually Mars spends about six weeks in a sign, but it will remain in Aries until January 2021, and along the way it will square Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto three times. One of the only plus points about the coronavirus is that it has halted or at least decreased various global conflicts. Once Mars gets going in Aries all bets are off. And I have to say, the rattling of sabres between China and the US worries me.

We are still in the embrace of the Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter triple conjunction, and although the pandemic has accounted for much of the devastation typical of this grouping, we have yet to see any international conflict and re-shaping of territory that tends to occur on Saturn-Pluto conjunctions. (In 1982, and the previous Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Libra, not only was global economic woe an issue but Great Britain went to war with Argentina to defend its territory: and just to refresh your memory, the cold war was at its iciest.)

So, I’m afraid I haven’t got a lot of joy to offer you this week, but then again, there’s no point to astrology if we only talk about the good stuff.
Life is difficult. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be beaten by our foes – in whatever shape they come – we should instead become more determined than ever to master our circumstances.

Are we together? Yes!