There will be repercussions.

In a week where the Sun angled Saturn and Pluto and a full Moon set the seal on this most powerful cardinal T-square, actions will have consequences, and probably in January when the Sun in Capricorn and the eclipsed moon in Cancer echo this configuration.

It was a week when Donald Trump ordered US troops out of north-eastern Syria and so abandoned the Kurds to a Turkish invasion and an uncertain fate, and potentially exposed the west to further reprisals from Isis. It was a week when Angela Merkel gave Boris Johnson a big fat “Nein!” to his plans to overcome the “Irish backstop”, leaving less than a handful of days to prevent a no-deal Brexit. And it was a week when the parents of a young man killed by an American diplomat’s wife were informed by the president of the United States, “The woman was driving on the wrong side of the road, that happens… So, a young man was killed…” The spouse of the US government employee will not return to the UK to address her actions, nor, it seems, take responsibility for them in any meaningful way, shape or form or apologize to the devastated family.

There will be repercussions.

Although the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany in response to Germany’s invasion of Poland in September of 1939, Britain and France effectively abandoned their legal, diplomatic, military and moral obligations to the country. Our failure to help Poland fight first, the German army and then the Russians gave the occupying forces a head start and almost changed the course of World War II.

So, while the Turkish invasion of an area held by their arch-enemies, the Kurds, may seem to be yet another conflict in a distant country that has nothing to do with us, it has the capacity to bring the war with DAESH right back onto the streets of the west.

In such a week it was easy to miss reports of growing concerns for the global economy.

Although Britain’s economy grew in the summer, staving off fears of a new recession, that its dominant service sector plunged into contraction in September, as did America’s service sector, is not what you’d call a good sign. During the past week sterling slid to its lowest point in recent weeks against the euro and the US dollar, and the combination of Brexit uncertainty and continuing tensions over trade between America and China are generating terrible jitters in global markets.

You may not remember, but back in 1929 the Wall Street crash, which precipitated the great depression, was triggered by the crash of the London Stock Exchange some four weeks beforehand. In September 2007, the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage sector precipitated the international banking crisis the following year. History never precisely repeats itself, but there is a chance that the effects of Brexit – deal or no-deal – will hurt the UK economy, which could have a knock-on effect on the global economy, especially if tensions over trade increase between the US and China.

A year ago, in regard to the looming Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 12/13 January, it was impossible to predict what and how it might inspire an international crisis, but the events of this October set against the background of a series of Saturn-Pluto aspects are providing a lot of food for thought.