Friday Bite  July 2026

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave

“All I did was ask for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Donald Trump, 5 July, 2026

 “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.” Donald Trump, 2 January, 2021

“I think it’s over. I don’t wanna deal with them anymore. They’re scum, you know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people.” Donald Trump, 6 July 2026

“And we’re dealing with people that I think are very rational people. And they were nice to deal with. They were strong people, smart people… and they’re, you know, looking to help their country” Donald Trump, 14 June 2026

IT SEEMS THE war with Iran is back on. Or maybe not. Who knows? Donald Trump doesn’t appear to know. (He’s a Gemini, and in two minds about the whole thing.) What we do know is that in the early hours of Tuesday morning Iran fired on three commercial vessels in Oman’s territorial waters near the Strait of Hormuz. That evening, the United States struck several of Iran’s port cities. On Wednesday, Iran launched drones and missiles at American bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. On Thursday, the United States bombarded southern Iran.

So much for the Memorandum of Understanding.

All the while, the six-day funeral for former supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei was taking place, wending its way through cities in Iran and Iraq. Millions of Iranians took to the streets, many bearing banners vowing revenge on America. One placard held by dozens of mourners read: WE WILL KILL TRUMP.

The point I want to make about the above chart, which represents the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding at the Elysee Palace almost four weeks ago, is that Mars was thirteen degrees away from Uranus and reached this planet of change and revolution on 4 July, as America celebrated Independence Day and the days-long funeral of Iran’s supreme leader began. As it is, with Neptune rising at the time of signing, are we surprised that the Memorandum is mired in misunderstanding.

Trump, meanwhile, was in Ankara attending the NATO summit. Apparently, the president arrived in a sour mood, perhaps aggravated by having to transfer from the spanking new Air Force One to the old 747 for security reasons half-way through the flight to Türkiye.  Or perhaps he was a little put out having done his best to ensure that team USA had its star striker for the match against Belgium only to see it lose 4-1 on the day.

Nonetheless, having started off on the wrong foot, criticising his NATO allies for not spending enough on defence and reiterating his desire to seize Greenland, President Trump declared the Ankara summit a “tremendous success”. And the rest of NATO must surely have breathed a collective sigh of relief when the meeting between Trump and Zelensky went well and resulted in permission for Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles and eighty billion dollars more for the war-torn country.

The conference could indeed have gone a lot worse. Saturn is currently on NATO’s natal Sun, which is closely opposed to natal Neptune, and the summit began as the Sun squared Saturn, generating a powerful T-square configuration. The separating Mars-Uranus conjunction was none too far from an opposition to NATO’s natal Chiron, all of which suggests that while on the surface relations between the USA and other member states is more than cordial, there are deep cracks in its foundations. It was only six months ago that the prospect of NATO going to war with the USA over Greenland raised its head (Sun conjunct Pluto) and it is interesting that the situation has reemerged just prior to the Sun’s opposition to Pluto.

I should mention that there are two charts worthy of consideration for NATO, the one above, which represents the founding of the alliance in April of 1949 and the other of August the same year, which marks the moment that NATO came into force.

In the above chart, Venus at four degrees of Libra, the ruler of the seventh house of partnerships, is currently opposed by transiting Neptune while Neptune at thirteen degrees of Libra is presently opposed by transiting Saturn. Uranus at four degrees of Cancer is also being squared by transiting Neptune, thereby generating a tense T-square. In earlier Bites I have suggested that these transits are presiding over the weakening of the alliance in terms of its relationship with the United States, however it is simultaneously gaining strength with other member states for precisely that reason. Saturn-Neptune conjunctions, preside over the end of regimes and symbolize the dissolution of old ideals and structures as new movements build momentum.

IT WAS NOT a good week for Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform party and, in the event of a general election, potential prime minister of the United Kingdom. Reform is a far-right populist party, and Farage, a leader in the image of Donald Trump.

It was not a good week because the issue over a £5,000,000 gift from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harbourne will not go away. Mr Farage failed to notify the parliamentary authorities about the gift, which was given to him before he announced his intention to become a member of parliament. This infringement of parliamentary protocol has been fiercely disputed by Farage who claims he has done nothing wrong and is the victim of an establishment witch hunt. However, the truth is that some months ago, bankers reported the gift to the National Crime Agency because they were concerned that the money was laundered.

On Tuesday, Nigel Farage announced his resignation as MP for Clacton, immediately triggering a byelection. He then declared his intention to run for election. In his speech, he challenged the major parties to a “fair fight” to let voters judge him. All the major parties have opted to boycott the byelection, dismissing it as a political distraction. Thus far, Mr Farage faces a challenge by Count Binface and Laurence Fox, former actor and leader of the Reclaim Party.

Nigel Farage’s statement was billed as a “statement on my future in public life”. And he couldn’t have picked a better title or a better moment, given the astrology of the times. Farage – Sun and Mars in Aries and the Moon and Midheaven in Sagittarius – has transiting Pluto on his Ascendant, his solar arc progressed Midheaven is on his Ascendant, solar arc progressed Mars is on his IC and transiting Uranus is on his IC. Were this to be a general election, these progressions and transits might well change his political life in a good way, making him prime minister. However, this is not that time. He is instead facing a real threat to his standing as a politician. And if investigations prove that he was the beneficiary of gifts of laundered money, his career is over; he could face charges of corruption.

As you will see, I have drawn in Barbault’s Basket outside the wheel, which makes important connections to Farage’s natal chart. This configuration becomes exact on and around 19/20 July, and it will be capped on 27 July by a full Moon at six degrees of Aquarius. The full moon will flank the Jupiter-Pluto opposition and Farage’s Ascendant-Descendant axis.

Mr Farage, like Mr Trump, is a lucky guy. He escaped death by inches when a private plane he was aboard crashed into a field on the day of the general election in 2010. He is charismatic, charming and articulate, loved by his fans, detested by pretty well everyone else. Given the boom-bust nature of the Jupiter-Pluto opposition on his Ascendant and Uranus hovering over his IC, it is asking a lot of Dame Fortune to get him out of this mess, but she might. Just like Trump, who is a Houdini when it comes to avoiding annihilation, proof of corrupt practices may be impossible to prove. However, if this were the chart of anyone else, I’d say his days as leader of the Reform party are numbered.

Friday Bite 3 July 2026

Happy Birthday, America!

“Government is supposed to serve us. It is supposed to lower costs, supposed to protect our families, strengthen our schools, make life better for people. But Donald Trump believes that government exists to serve him—to make him richer, to protect his friends, to reward his donors… And he’s betting that the corruption will be so constant that we stop hearing it. That the outrage will just turn into exhaustion, and the exhaustion will just turn into acceptance. We can’t let that happen. Because once corruption becomes normal, it becomes permanent.” Senator Chris Murphy, 23 June

“…90 years of precedent has been COMPLETELY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY OVERRULED, greatly increasing Presidential Power at a time when it is most needed! Today’s Historic Slaughter Decision by the Supreme Court is the Greatest Increase in Presidential Power in the last 100 years. Such a Monumental Ruling at such an important time!” Donald Trump, 29 June

THIS WAS A big week in the astrological calendar – in the space of a few hours, Jupiter entered Leo, Mercury turned retrograde and a full moon took place – and although there have been events of significance, which I’ll come to shortly, it’s not quite the rodeo we might have expected. I may be speaking too soon, of course, because America’s big 250th birthday bash lies ahead, as do a Mars-Uranus conjunction and a Sun-Saturn square.

On Wednesday, President Trump took his first trip in the new Air Force One – a refurbished Boeing 747 – gifted to him by Qatar, declaring it to be the “greatest commercial plane ever built”. He fielded questions about the financial gains he and his family and friends have made since his return to the White House, details of which had landed the day before in a financial disclosure document. His fortune has grown at a rate matched only by tech barons and kleptocratic dictators:  $1,430,390,415 in crypto earnings alone and a comparatively paltry $635 million in royalties from ‘Celebration Coins’ – the $TRUMP meme coin.

Not helping what many see as a rapid descent into authoritarianism, was the ruling by the Supreme Court on Monday giving the president the power to remove Federal Trade Commission commissioners at will, thus overturning a ninety-year precedent that protected members of certain independent agencies from being fired by the president without cause. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it: “In abolishing independent agencies, SCOTUS hands the U.S. president more powers than a king…”

Closely on the heels of the “Slaughter” ruling, Trump lost his bid to end birthright citizenship. This might have been seen as a victory for lovers of democracy and a sign of impartiality by SCOTUS, but the Supreme Court’s decision was far from unanimous and showed its clear bias toward the president. As Stasha Rhodes, executive director of United for Democracy put it, “The Court is creating just enough distance from the administration to preserve the appearance of balance…”

So, while these decisions may not seem to be of great significance compared, say, with the War in Iran or Lebanon or the Venezuelan earthquake, they have huge implications for the people of the United States and beyond.

THE WAR IN Ukraine got a little more deadly this week. Late Wednesday and through the early hours of Thursday morning, Russia battered Kyiv with an arsenal of drones and missiles, destroying apartment buildings and killing more than thirty people. These attacks are the deadliest this year and come as a response to Ukraine’s success in striking oil refineries in Russia.

In terms of the astrology, we should again take note that while these influences have not presided over a cease-fire or a major event that alters the course of the war, there is a shift taking place and if you look at the bigger picture, while Russia may not be losing ground on the battlefield it is losing ground in other ways. Ukraine’s strikes on refineries are beginning to affect Muscovites, as petrol queues lengthen, and Putin needs income from oil sales to fund his war machine. The war has already burned through much of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and it is difficult to fathom how much longer Putin can continue to fund the war before the Russian people decide they’ve had enough of their “Redeemer” and this war.

The above chart is that of Vladimir Putin. Around the circle I have drawn the forthcoming configuration set to take place on 20 July. I have also added the solar eclipse of 12 August (20 degrees Leo), which is conjunct Putin’s Midheaven and the lunar eclipse of 28 August (5 degrees Pisces), which is squaring his Moon in Gemini. As you will see, the Basket alignment connects with Putin’s Ascendant suggesting that the second half of July and all of August is going to be a pivotal time for the Russian president – and not in a good way.

Already, Uranus is in range of Putin’s natal Moon (2 degrees Gemini) and Russia’s Moon (3 degrees Virgo) while Saturn is closely opposing Putin’s Sun and Pluto conjoining Russia’s Saturn. All of which suggests Russia is ripe for revolution or at least a season of major social and political unrest. Of course, a wounded animal can be dangerous, as former major general and lawmaker in the Putin government, Andrei Guruhyov illustrated. “We must strike the enemy mercilessly and without hesitation… eliminate the entire leadership, destroy all command centres and bring the entire industrial sector to its knees.”.

Spoiler alert!

One of my students pointed out to me that the birth data we have for Putin is incorrect, and that he is older. Apparently, he was bullied at school because of his small stature, so when he went to live with his grandmother she altered his birth date. I am going to look further into this, but as we astrologers know from experience, a chart, even an incorrect one, can produce remarkable results! As it stands, the above chart has worked very well with major events in Putin’s life thus far, but if the next few months go by without his removal from power or at least a severe threat to his authority, I shall have to reconsider its authenticity.

AS I PUT this Bite to bed, Donald Trump is on his way to Mount Rushmore to give a speech to celebrate the founding of America. The speech will be followed by a firework display. And on an exact Mars-Uranus conjunction, we should cross our fingers in the hopes that they are the only explosives on display. Halfway around the world, Iran is burying its beloved leader Ayatollah Khamenei, killed alongside his family on the first day of Operation Epic Fury…