The really big question of the past week had to be how the highest of high-profile prisoners with one suicide attempt behind him was left largely unattended in a New York prison cell, and found dead 18 days later. You don’t have to be a fan of conspiracy theories to smell a rat. And I choose my words carefully.

In brief. Late in the afternoon of 6 July 2019, billionaire, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested at Teterboro airport (New Jersey) having flown in from France on a private jet. Two days later he was indicted on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for having created “a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit”. Were he to have been convicted he faced up to 45 years in jail.

On 23rd July, Epstein was reportedly found unconscious in his cell and was briefly placed on suicide watch. A week later, allegedly on the request of his attorneys, he was returned to a special housing unit in the jail, where he was supposed to have been checked on every thirty minutes.

At 06:30 on the 10th of August, he was discovered in his cell with a sheet tied around his neck in a noose. He was in cardiac arrest, taken to hospital and declared dead. The cause of death remains undetermined. Apparently, the two wardens charged with checking in on him both fell asleep. Epstein’s cell was out of range of CC cameras.

Epstein’s death occurred a matter of hours after nearly 2000 pages of court documents related to his alleged sexual abuse of underage girls were unsealed. The documents implicated several “powerful” men including a “British royal”, a former governor and a former senator.

The news broke as Uranus was stationary, poised to turn direct, and as both Venus and Mercury squared Uranus. However, shocking as the news of his death may have been, and therefore reflective of Uranus, this tale of Epstein and his band of evil, corrupt and narcissistic men has Saturn and Pluto written all over it.

I will be devoting more time to this story as it unravels over the weeks and months ahead, but for now, here are some key astrological features.

Jeffrey Epstein was born on 20 January, 1953 on Coney Island, New York. We have no time of birth for him, but since the Sun remained in Capricorn until 03:21 that morning, there is an 87 percent chance that he was an Aquarian. And here I have raised a sunrise chart, placing Aquarius and the Sun on the Ascendant.

Epstein’s natal Mercury (21 degrees of Capricorn) is opposed to Uranus (16 degrees of Cancer). At the time of his arrest, Pluto at 22 degrees of Capricorn was conjunct his Mercury and squaring natal Neptune. Saturn at 17 degrees of Capricorn was precisely conjunct the south node, and therefore resonating with the recent eclipses on the Cancer-Capricorn axis, while the Sun at 14 degrees of Cancer was conjunct his natal Uranus.

We can thus be assured Epstein’s arrest came as a complete shock to him. Having almost served a previous sentence for luring underage girls to his Palm Beach mansion, he had no reason to believe he was anything but clean and clear. After all, with all those friends in high places with just as much to lose, if not more, than him he was as safe as White Houses. Surely.

Epstein was also born nine days before a total lunar eclipse at 9 degrees of Aquarius-Leo. And that series of eclipses, you may like to note, has everything to do with power, the ruling elite and royalty.

His death at 6:30 in the morning of the 10th August found the 22nd degree of Leo rising – the degree of his natal Pluto – and Saturn precisely opposed to his natal Uranus. However he died, and by whose hand, it was time.

Perhaps in times past, times before the outing of Harvey Weinstein and emergence of the MeToo movement, the death of the principle “witness” might have ended such an investigation. Not so now. Federal investigators have declared Epstein’s death will not impede their investigations, and “new suspects” will be uncovered.

“To those brave young women who have already come forward and to the many others who have yet to do so, let me reiterate that we remain committed to standing for you, and our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment – which included a conspiracy count – remains ongoing,” Geoffrey Berman, the Manhattan US attorney, said in a statement.

Which must make uncomfortable reading for some of those friends in high places who have enjoyed trips on the Lolita Express (Epstein’s private plane) to lavish parties at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach.

Perhaps to assuage fears that that “British royal” might be Prince Andrew, on the 12th of August (the glorious twelfth, the start of the shooting season) Buckingham Palace issued a strong and unprecedented statement.

“This relates to proceedings in the United States to which The Duke of York is not a party. Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.”

All this unwanted attention on the Duke of York has come at an exceedingly awkward time as the royal family is gathered for its annual summer break at Balmoral. And although, the Palace Press Office has gone to great pains to explain that Prince Andrew was already scheduled to leave Balmoral this past week, it hasn’t stopped media speculation that he has escaped to Spain for a break with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

Which brings us to another interesting possibility that the Duke and Duchess of York might be considering a rematch.

This is another subject which I will take up should possibility become reality, but I will leave you with the charts of the couple and a thought that much as we all love a romantic story, perhaps remarriage to Sarah might serve some rather more important purposes, and certainly divert attention away from the current mire in which the Duke finds himself.