It was a bad week for news.

It was an even worse week for the residents of Venice (Italy) and Fishlake, South Yorkshire, where water levels rose to unprecedented levels necessitating evacuation and causing unimaginable damage. It was a very bad week for President Trump as the impeachment hearing began in the House of Representatives, and it was a terrible week for Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn and Prime Minister Boris Johnson who suffered body blows to their respective electoral campaigns. And it was a devastating week for the residents in coastal regions of New South Wales and Queensland as raging bushfires, buoyed by the rising heat and strong winds, decimated the land. Lives were lost.

What was going on?

In my Hello for the week and on my YouTube channel I talked about the transit (mini-eclipse) of Mercury and the full moon in Taurus, which opposed Alpha Serpentis, one of the less propitious fixed stars and, according to Ptolemy, of the nature of Mars and Saturn. At the very least, we were in for a week of weird and profound events, a week when the ministry of disinformation would be hard at work.

Which brings me to recent developments in Hong Kong which bear the signature of that full moon and Alpha Serpentis upon them.

To refresh memories, earlier in the year, in response to a bill proposing to extradite Hong Kong citizens to mainland China, the residents of Hong Kong took to the streets. And they have done so in their hundreds of thousands during the past six months. Street brawls, however, have now become full-on clashes between the police and the protesters. And in the last seven days two individuals have lost their lives.

It is hard to believe this situation will end well.

On Tuesday, 12th November, the full moon in Taurus was conjunct Hong Kong’s natal moon which in turn opposed Serpentis. Indeed, when Hong Kong was handed over to China on the 30th June 1997, the Moon was in opposition to Serpentis stamping its imprint on the natal chart of Hong Kong. These current events are therefore highly significant in terms of Hong Kong’s future. Also in the astrological mix this past week, were Uranus (3 degrees of Taurus) inconjunct Hong Kong’s natal Pluto and squaring natal Venus while the mid-point of the current Saturn-Pluto conjunction was squaring Hong Kong’s natal Saturn.

I would suggest that behind the scenes (and in keeping with the hidden dimension of the recent Mercury transit) in discussions between the Hong Kong government and China, plans are being laid to bring an end to the protests, which have shut down tunnels, closed universities, affected Hong Kong’s retail sector and plunged the state into recession.

If we look a little further ahead in time, we can see that the solar eclipse of 26th December (4 degrees of Capricorn) is conjunct Hong Kong’s mid-heaven and opposed to its Sun in Cancer. Indeed, the north node will be conjunct Hong Kong’s Sun throughout December. Such things are indicative of a destined turn of events.

Add to this, the solar eclipse of 26 December, which is conjunct transiting Jupiter, opposes China’s natal Uranus. Two weeks later and the second eclipse in this short cycle occurs just prior to the almighty Saturn-Pluto conjunction and falls on China’s natal Jupiter.

These developments regarding the charts of Hong Kong and China suggest a power-play by China which will affect Hong Kong’s status. It is the addition of Jupiter to the mix and its involvement with Uranus that increases the chances that China will finally take action.

We have just six weeks to wait to see quite how these significant transits and eclipses will shape the future of Hong Kong. But, as I said earlier, it is hard to see events ending well.