Friday Bite 1 July 2022

The Sins of the Father

The past week has proved to be yet another ground-breaking, eyebrow-raising one. Not surprising, given that Neptune is stationary-retrograde, Mercury squaring Neptune, Mars squaring Pluto and a new moon squaring Jupiter. Whatever decisions were made, whatever actions taken, will have far-reaching repercussions – most of them, thanks to Neptune, unforeseen.

Setting aside yet more damning evidence in the Select Committee’s hearing on the January 6th insurrection, Sweden’s and Finland’s applications to join NATO are to be fast-tracked through after Turkey’s President Erdogan withdrew his objection.

NATO leaders agreed to increase sevenfold the response force in the eastern part of the alliance. (Not since the Cold War has such an action been taken – a decision no doubt fuelled by Pluto’s conjunction to NATO’s natal Jupiter.)

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, a new Chief Executive – former police officer John Lee – was sworn in. Xi Jinping took the opportunity to reassure Hong Kongers that the “one country, two systems” model would be maintained…

Back in Blighty, it was revealed Prince Charles had accepted several carrier bags containing millions of euros in cash during meetings with the former prime minister of Qatar. All strictly within the bounds of the law, of course. It wasn’t the only royal story. The findings of an investigation into allegations that Meghan Markle had “humiliated and bullied” staff are to “remain private”. (I don’t think the Duchess is too upset about the burial of the report: with Jupiter hovering over her Midheaven, she’s in a really good place at the moment.)

Last but not least, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years for “enticing and grooming” girls under the age of eighteen to be “abused in multiple ways”.

Before I delve a little deeper in Ghislaine Maxwell’s chart, of all the above developments this past week, NATO’s decision to send 300,000 more troops to countries bordering Russia could have the most concerning and unforeseen consequences.

While in no way justifying Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine – he is to be vilified and will surely take his place in the hall of infamy along with Hitler and Stalin – the Russian president has frequently cited NATO’s creeping expansion as the reason for invading Ukraine. And he has a point. Since its founding in 1949, NATO has accepted several countries once part of the Soviet Union into its ranks. At first, Russia cooperated, but after the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary joined, its attitude hardened. Seven years later, the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in the wake of the Maidan Revolution almost certainly proved the proverbial last straw.

NATO’s decision this week to increase its military presence on Russia’s borders with Europe, plus Sweden’s and Finland’s likely acceptance into the alliance, will not go down at all well with Mr Putin, and with Neptune currently squaring NATO’s Moon-Uranus conjunction, and Pluto 150 degrees away from its natal Saturn, these developments are virtually guaranteed to make the Russian president even more dangerous and determined to expand his narcissistic quest to make Russia great again.

On Thursday, at four o’clock in the afternoon in a courtroom in New York, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years for sex-trafficking. It was an allegation she has strenuously and consistently denied and a sentence her legal team will appeal against. In her address to the victims before she was sentenced, Maxwell apologized for their pain but took no responsibility.

To refresh your memories, Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter of the late disgraced property tycoon, Robert Maxwell – he who plundered the Mirror group’s pension funds to the tune of hundreds of millions. In July 2020 she was arrested for sex-trafficking. The trial came to court in November, 2021 and she was convicted on December 29th of the same year.

How a privileged, highly educated and sophisticated woman came to be partner-in-crime to a paedophile is a mystery, unless, of course, you know her background.

Ghislaine Maxwell was born on Christmas Day, 1961. Three days later, a car carrying her 15-year-old brother crashed into a lorry along a foggy Oxfordshire road. Michael would spend his remaining seven years in a coma.

By all accounts, Ghislaine’s early life, while materially abundant was emotionally sparse. In her memoir, her mother Betty admitted the tragic accident overshadowed her daughter’s birth and early years. One day, according to her mother, three-year-old Ghislaine stood in front of her and declared, “Mummy, I exist.”. This statement galvanized both parents to rectify the situation by lavishing gifts and affection on their youngest daughter thereafter. In consequence she became spoilt and entitled.

That Robert was a difficult man is something of an understatement. His rages were legendary and he bullied his staff and his children, physically and verbally abusing them. Nonetheless, Ghislaine adored him – she was his favourite child — and on his death, was “utterly distraught”.

Robert Maxwell was to drown in mysterious circumstances off the coast of the Canary Islands. In the wake of his death and the ensuing scandal over the plundered funds, Ghislaine took herself to New York and, thanks to a trust fund that provided £80,000 a year, she managed to live a life of luxury, mixing with the rich, the famous, the powerful and the wealthy. It was not long after her flight to the Big Apple that she met and fell in love with financier Jeffrey Epstein. He would, of course, become her nemesis, leaving her alone to face the consequences of his depraved indifference.

It is easy to see why Ghislaine was attracted to Epstein, for he was not without charms, but quite how she became his immoral sidekick is rather more complicated and owes much to her childhood and the relationship with her father.

The reason people marry their mother or their father may be a cliché but that’s because it occurs with regularity. Epstein, like Robert Maxwell, came from humble origins and built an empire. Similarly, Epstein fell from grace and died in controversial circumstances. As Oscar Wilde might have put it: to lose one man who was dishonoured and died in mysterious circumstances is unfortunate; to lose two looks like carelessness. Or, I might suggest, looks like a pattern.

With all the planets bar Jupiter occupying the western hemisphere of the chart, a life driven by circumstances is indicated, but it is the presence of a Moon-Jupiter opposition on the MC-IC axis squared by Neptune that present the major theme of her life.

The Moon in Leo in the fourth house opposing Jupiter reflects a childhood of abundance, whether in terms of material benefits or warmth and love. The Moon’s square to Neptune contradicts that message implying a lack of love and affection and a missing parent. One or both parents is portrayed as deeply inadequate or perceived as a victim or saviour and therefore idealised or rejected. Thus, someone with this pattern grows up to repeat it.

The T-square with Neptune at its apex is implicated in the tragedy and loss that overshadowed Ghislaine’s early life. That she then came to adore her abusive father is another aspect of this configuration. And one must ask where was Betty in all of this? Did she intercede when her husband was in one of his violent rages which he took out on the children? Or did she “disappear” thereby appearing to condone his behaviour? Certainly, Ghislaine grew up to understand that love involved abuse and it was a woman’s role to suffer for love. This pattern would also give rise to someone who, while at home with people of power and influence, was deeply unsure of herself.

In finding Epstein, Ghislaine discovered herself on a familiar path: loved by the object of her affection when it suited him but abused by him and frequently abandoned and humiliated. Without a strong moral compass, which Maxwell clearly lacks, winning the affection of the man you love means doing anything and everything to please him. Journalist John Sweeny, who knew Ghislaine in the early days of her time in New York made this point: “You can’t understand what happened [to Ghislaine] without understanding her relationship with her father. The truth is that Ghislaine learned to service her father and then had to service a second monster – that’s what she’s done her entire life.”.

I don’t believe there is a lot of sympathy for Ghislaine Maxwell. Tragic as her story may be, she had the power of choice. She also had money and influence. She was sentenced on the new moon in Cancer squaring Jupiter and as Neptune was stationary retrograde. Pluto, at 28 degrees of Capricorn, was conjunct her natal Saturn.

The new moon marks a new chapter – in this case twenty years in jail – Neptune at full power resonates with the loss of her freedom and triggering the pattern of rejection, abuse, decadence and dissoluteness that has dominated her life while Pluto’s conjunction to Saturn confirms it was time: chickens had come home to roost.

Friday Bite June 24th 2022

The Cancer Ingress – three perspectives

At 1:30 in the morning, 28 miles south-west of Khost, Afghanistan, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck. One thousand people were killed and 1600 injured. It was yet another catastrophe for a country that has experienced appalling suffering on all levels since the Taliban regained power in August last year. As the week went on, earthquakes of a different variety were felt in other corners of the globe.

On Sunday, President Macron lost control of the French National Assembly. He now faces a titanic struggle to prevent opposition parties from imposing their protectionist agenda on the country. (He may have won the general election two months ago, despite serious afflictions to his chart, but those Uranus and Pluto transits may still prove his undoing – Pluto conjunct his Ascendant and Uranus conjunct his Moon and opposing natal Uranus.

In Thursday’s fifth Select Committee hearing on the storming of the Capitol yet more testimony from Republicans was given endorsing the panel’s case that Donald Trump was the force behind the failed coup. Despite a huge body of support for the former president, according to many political commentators, he is losing ground. “I see people no longer drinking the Kool-Aid. I see people moving away from Trump for the first time.” (Frank Luntz, political consultant and pollster.)

On Friday, in the UK, the government awoke to the news that it had lost two bi-elections in spectacular fashion. Before it could blink, co-party chairman, Oliver Dowden had resigned. An embattled Boris, currently attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda, assured the party faithful that this was par for the course, and business would continue as usual… (Sadly, I think that’s almost certainly why the Tories lost the bi-elections.)

On Tuesday, the Sun entered the sign of Cancer, marking the Cancer Ingress. There are four points in the year at which the Sun enters a cardinal sign and charts erected for that moment provide a bird’s-eye view of the following quarter. This is the Cancer Ingress from the perspective of Khost in Afghanistan.

With Pluto exactly on the IC, it is clear there is to be trouble at home. Could a resistance movement launch an attack on the government? Could there be new laws that adversely affect the people and the homeland? (Sun in the ninth house of the judiciary inconjunct Pluto in the fourth house.) Or could Pluto’s principles of transformation involve an eruption of the geological kind? Saturn is squaring Venus, the ruler of the chart and placed in the eighth house, suggesting financial loss/hardship/downgrading of the currency and/or grave loss of life and livelihoods.

Here’s a picture of what happened the very next day.

At the moment the earthquake struck, Pluto was high overhead (reversing its position at the Ingress) and Uranus rising to the Ascendant. Now, let us be clear, these planetary positions and angular relations did not cause the earth to erupt; they just provided a narrative of the event. Yes, we might expect Uranus or Pluto to be on an angle or in close (hard) aspect to a personal planet, but an earthquake does not happen every time such configurations come to pass. Nor did an earthquake of the actual kind occur in France, the USA or the UK in the wake of the Cancer Ingress. For President Macron, the rug was pulled out from under him, and the French Assembly plunged into chaos.

Pluto does not appear on the angle in the Ingress chart for France, although Uranus is widely conjunct the Midheaven. Venus stands proud on the Midheaven and is both square to Saturn and trine Pluto. What is relevant in this chart is the Midheaven degree (24 Taurus) and the proximity of the nodal axis to the MC-IC axis: eclipses occur on or near the nodes, and this is a reference to the total lunar eclipse of May 16th at 25 degrees Scorpio/Taurus. The fixed star, Algol is located at 25 degrees of Taurus, and is considered to be most unfortunate having much to do with violence and decapitation! That Saturn at 25 degrees of Aquarius is precisely squaring the MC-IC axis and Algol, suggests the government, as represented by the tenth house, is in danger of losing its head. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the aforementioned configuration certainly indicates the battle facing President Macron to stay in power as he endeavours to establish unity in a deadlocked assembly.

A similar message is being transmitted by the Ingress chart for the UK. Here we find Uranus and Saturn closer to the angles but with the same Saturn/nodal axis/Algol configuration. A decapitation therefore is even more likely. It may be that Boris will not survive as Prime Minister beyond this quarter.

At the start of the year, I suggested Mr Johnson would be gone by the end of 2022, but thus far, he has survived all manner of threats to his leadership. There is something immensely likeable about Boris even though it is clear he has breached the ministerial code, and should therefore resign. More seriously, he is at his best dealing with such dangerous global situations as the Ukraine war, and his loss at Britain’s helm would be a loss for the wider world.

The Sun in this ingress chart is placed in the eleventh house of enterprise and society and squaring the Moon, Jupiter and Neptune in the eighth house. While we cannot rule out events that will involve a large loss of life or livelihoods in this next quarter, we can certainly see the way the economy is heading – increasing inflation and interest hikes. The Neptune-Moon-Jupiter combo is at once growth (good) and inflation (bad).

Mercury is the ruler of the chart and in harmony with the Moon-Jupiter conjunction, which supplies a small ray of hope that discussions to avert the summer of strikes will prove successful. Nonetheless, with Saturn conjunct the Descendant squaring Venus, victories will be hard to come by.

Friday Bite June 17th 2022

LIVING IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

It’s been quite a week.

With days to go before the first flight carrying asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, over twenty Bishops and Archbishops signed a letter to The Times voicing their opposition to the government’s policy calling it “immoral” and “opposite the nature of God”. Prince Charles joined the chorus of disapproval describing the policy as “appalling”. After a string of legal battles aimed at preventing Tuesday’s flight to Rwanda from taking off, the European Court of Human Rights intervened and at the eleventh hour it was cancelled. It was not the only blow for Boris and a beleaguered Tory party: on Thursday, Lord Geidt, the prime minister’s ethical advisor, resigned. In his resignation letter Lord Geidt cited as a reason his refusal to advise on proposals that posed a “deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code”. In the second Select Committee hearing over the January 6 insurrection, yet more evidence and testimony emerged of former president Donald Trump’s refusal to accept he’d lost the 2020 election. And then there was Bitcoin, which lost 25% of its value in the span of four days.

We can point the finger at Tuesday’s full moon squaring Neptune for presiding over all the chaos and confusion – a full moon which fell on Mr Trump’s natal Sun-Moon opposition, Boris’s Sun-Venus-Mercury midpoint and squared Bitcoin’s Saturn-Uranus opposition.

The cryptocurrency world is in a bit of a pickle. Crypto and global equity markets have been selling off since early 2022, in large part due to the wider global economic climate – interest rate increases, galloping inflation and cost of living rises – in turn inspired by the war in Ukraine and the meteoric hike in gas prices. In mid-May, the near collapse of the Stablecoin Terra followed by another, Tether, sent panic waves across cryptocurrency markets and since then the currency has been unstable to say the least.

I had made a brief mention of the cryptocurrency market in my May 13th Friday Bite, but I thought it worthy of a closer look now.

Bitcoin was the first of the cryptocurrencies and it remains the “bellwether” for the crypto market, thus its precipitous tumble in the past few days is concerning. Indeed, it may turn out to be the “bellwether” for the global economy.

Bitcoin came out of the turmoil of the 2007 global economic meltdown. The trust in banks had gone and a way of making financial transactions without the necessity of an intermediary was clearly an idea whose time had come. Bitcoin was launched on January 3rd 2009 but the first transaction took place on May 22nd 2010 when a Florida man negotiated the delivery of two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the value of the Bitcoin being 4 coins to a penny. In January of 2022 the value of that transaction would have been $400 million.

Bitcoin has had a vertiginous journey, reaching peaks and troughs many times during the course of its thirteen-year history. So, there is a case to be made for its recovery from this recent nosedive. Indeed, many experts believe just that. Some maintaining that the value of the Bitcoin will reach $100 million by 2030 and $1 billion by 2038. Warren Buffet, however, can’t see the point of it.

“If you said … for a 1% interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25 billion, I’ll write you a check this afternoon,” Buffett said. ”[For] $25 billion I now own 1% of the farmland. [If] you offer me 1% of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another $25 billion, I’ll write you a check, it’s very simple. Now if you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food.”