Yet another week has gone by when the extraordinary became commonplace.

On Monday, 13th January, as the Sun and Mercury transited the Saturn-Pluto conjunction (exact the previous day), senior members of the Royal Family, including Prince Harry but excluding Prince Philip, met at Sandringham to discuss the way forward for the Sussexes after their shock announcement they were to be “stepping down” from royal duties.

You didn’t need to be clairvoyant to know the statement issued by Her Majesty in the wake of the meeting would be short but positive and would contain the word constructive. As indeed it was and did.

“Today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family… we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.

These days, it’s not just a week that is a long time in politics. By Wednesday a formally supportive Canadian Prime Minister appeared to be hedging his bets on quite how to manage the royal couple’s defection to his country. The following day, a highly critical article about the couple’s planned move to Canada appeared in the Globe and Mail newspaper. Canada “is not a half-way house” for the royals, and the Sussexes’ plan to move there was not “something Canada can allow”.

By Friday, a move to Los Angeles appeared more likely. And with some members of staff at Frogmore Cottage being moved elsewhere in the royal household, the belief is that Meghan will not be returning any day soon to the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Next week’s new moon in Aquarius squaring Uranus – liberating by any standards – should mark the beginning of Harry and Meghan’s new life. But, as I said in last week’s Friday Bite, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

MAKING LESS SENSATIONAL HEADLINES but of even greater significance in global terms, was the resignation of the entire Russian government after President Putin proposed constitutional changes in what to all intents and purposes looks like a move to remain in power beyond 2024. Putin is constitutionally banned from seeking re-election again, but by becoming Prime Minister or Chairman of Parliament he can still hold on to power.

You may remember in my videos and articles on the Saturn-Pluto conjunction my use of the keyword reformation and my raising the possibility that Vladimir Putin would make a power grab in early-to-mid January. And here it is. This reformation may not have come in the form of a land grab, but a political one.

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction is currently squaring Putin’s Mercury-Neptune conjunction in Libra – Mercury is the ruler of his tenth house of career and life-direction – and sextiling his Mid-heaven and Pluto.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST in this week of eruptions and earth-tremors, the Taal volcano on the Philippine island of Luzon, some forty-five miles south of Manila, began to spew smoke and lava, inspiring the evacuation of 8000 people.

Taal is a volcano within a volcano and similar to Yellowstone Lake with a similar capacity to erupt in a catastrophic way. It has erupted many times during the last century, causing loss of life but nothing on the scale of Krakatoa, for instance. Nonetheless, you don’t want to be in the vicinity of a volcano that is sending plumes of smoke and larva nine miles up into the air days after a lunar eclipse and a Saturn-Pluto conjunction.

DID I SAY LAST BUT NOT LEAST? That was fake news. On Thursday, 16th January at two o’clock in the afternoon, Chief-Justice John Roberts and US senators were sworn-in for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The articles of impeachment, placed in folders, were taken in procession to the senate at sun-set the evening before.

Donald Trump is the third president in history to be tried for impeachment, and although it is widely believed the trial will fail to remove him from office, it is nonetheless a minus for the president. And the trial still holds hazards for him, not least new evidence in the form of a hand-written note describing a plot involving the Ukrainian president and Biden.

The chart set up for the swearing-in ceremony provides food for thought.

I am not a horary specialist but I know enough to be able to establish that the chart is “on” – it is reflective of the situation in question. Gemini rises (the degree is not far off Mr Trump’s Uranus, and he is a Gemini). Mercury, the ruler, is in the 9th house of legal matters and square Uranus, the ruler of the tenth house of leadership and government. For good measure, the Moon is in Libra (the sign of justice and balance) and applying to a square of the Sun-Saturn-Pluto conjunction. The Ascendant-descendant axis mirrors that of the USA, and the Moon in Libra is America’s Saturn, lodged in the tenth house of government.

Technically, with the connection between the ruler of the chart and the ruler of the house of the case in question, plus the applying aspects from the Moon to the stellium in Capricorn, the outcome should be successful.

The question is: successful for whom?

Following the swearing-in ceremony, Donald Trump tweeted, “I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL.”. However, his bravura belies the pressure he must be under. Currently, the Saturn-Pluto conjunction is opposing his natal Venus-Saturn conjunction, and a Saturn-opposition is a painful transit. It is a time of assessment. How far one has come and what has proved worthy of effort and what has not. In this case, not only will Mr Trump be reflecting on the journey he has taken from entertainer and property magnate to president of the USA, but he is facing a judgment of his efforts and his journey by his peers. A judgement that could involve his removal from office. It’s not going to be a lot of fun.

If you had any doubts about the potential of this mighty Saturn-Pluto conjunction to inspire shock and awe and to synchronize with massive changes in governments, constitutions, monarchies and industries, they must have been blown away by now. If not, there’s still another eleven months of potential eye-openers to convince you.