Friday Bite 12 September 2025
Holiday? What holiday?
“When one or two drones [go where they’re not supposed to go], it is possible that it was a technical malfunction, but … in this case there were 19 breaches, and it simply defies imagination that that could be accidental,” Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Donald Trump, Truth Social
“This is a dark moment for America… For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals…” Donald Trump, shortly after being compared to Adolph Hitler by protesters in the streets of Washington, DC
I SHOULD HAVE known the moment I declared I was off on holiday and in consequence there would be no Friday Bite this week, that all hell would break loose. And so it did. No sooner was I perched on my sunbed, Andrew Lownie’s Entitled in hand, mocktail on its way, than nineteen Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace and as a result activated Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Later in the day, a lone gunman on a roof overlooking the campus of Utah Valley University, shot and killed Charlie Kirk, right-wing activist and charismatic founder and CEO of Turning Point USA. His wife and two little girls were in the audience.
These two extraordinary events, continents apart, are reflective of the divided and conflicted times we live in. Times where discussion and debate take a back seat to violence and terror.
They are also the stuff of eclipses.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk drew attention away from a number of catastrophes and controversies that would have normally dominated newsrooms across the world for days if not weeks, not least Tuesday’s unprecedented Israeli strike against the Hamas leadership in the capital of Qatar, which in turn was retaliation for Monday’s Palestinian attack on Israeli citizens in Jerusalem. And we haven’t even mentioned the “bloodbath” taking place in the Labour government after the resignation of Angela Rayner (Friday, 5th) and, even more potentially disastrous, the collapse of the French government after the Prime Minister lost a vote of no-confidence (Monday). Francois Bayrou is the third Prime Minister to go since July last year with the result that President Macron is caught between a rock and hard place – the far left calling for his resignation and the far right demanding a snap election.
And then there was Nepal. Oh, and the US military’s killing of eleven alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers travelling by boat in international waters in the Caribbean,
You see what I mean about lunar eclipses, in keeping with the full-moon theme of closure and completion, have a way of bring simmering situations to a profound conclusion. Also, as I often point out, major events do not necessarily occur exactly on an eclipse but in the surrounding period, and that the time between two eclipses is particularly delicate.
We can take Wednesday as the midpoint for all these apocalyptic events, first and foremost because it was the day of the most consequential events – the Russian drone invasion of Poland and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And I will use that moment to look at the astrology.
The three usual suspects (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) continue to be aligned so that any planet or point from 28 – 2 degrees of a sign will be resonating with them. In this case, at 12 20 on Wednesday afternoon, the Moon at 29 degrees of Aries was squaring Pluto and semi-sextile Saturn and Neptune, on the one hand, and Uranus, on the other: in other words, the Moon was at the midpoint of Saturn-Neptune and Uranus. There is also a very generous Dart configuration with Mars at the apex opposing the Moon and inconjunct Saturn and Neptune and inconjunct Uranus.
However, what is most significant about this moment in time is that the Sun at 18 degrees 20’ Virgo is exactly on the nodal axis – the point at which eclipses occur – and Mercury is precisely on the degree of Sunday’s total lunar eclipse. Mercury, the planet of communication sending a powerful message to the world and certainly America. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction, of course, is exactly opposite the degree of the forthcoming solar eclipse on 21 September.
Which is why I say you will often find the signature of eclipses on momentous events.
It can seem to be insensitive to analyse the astrology of someone who has so abruptly and violently lost his life, so I’m not going into any detail about who Mr Kirk was, nor his political views, simply point out the astrological triggers that marked his fateful demise.
We do not have a time of birth for Kirk; all we can see is that Mars at the moment he was shot was 22 Libra 18, less than a degree away from his natal Sun, and as we know from the above, Mars, was the apex of a loose Dart alignment. Violence and conflict are properties of Mars, but while Mars may pass over your Sun every eighteen months or so, it doesn’t mean you run the risk of being killed every time. Nonetheless, the late Serbian astrologer, Nikola Stojanovic, theorised that 22 degrees of any sign was the assassin’s degree – “to kill or to be killed”.
At the time he was killed, the Sun at 18 degrees Virgo 20’ was precisely trining Kirk’s natal Uranus-Neptune conjunction. In other words, he was born on the exact Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 14 October, 1993. He personified the revolutionary and visionary properties of this conjunction, and although it is tempting to believe that his death could serve a greater purpose and bring some kind of unity to a divided America, it seems more likely that it will provoke further violence and disunion.
I’ll be back next Friday with a full Friday Bite
Friday Bite 5 September 2025
Tremors
“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory… Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.” Donald Trump, 3 September
“Today, mankind is faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum… the Chinese people firmly stand on the right side of history.” Xi Jinping, 3 September
AS WE MIGHT expect, with days to go before a total lunar eclipse, the past week got off to an earth-shaking start. On Sunday, a little before midnight, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook the earth near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, killing over 2000 people and injuring thousands more. The area is highly earthquake prone and with the drought already creating a humanitarian crisis, this devastating earthquake heaps tragedy on tragedy.
I’m not going to go into great astrological detail about the earthquake, but I did notice some intriguing factors. At the moment the ground erupted, 28 degrees of Gemini was rising. You may remember in recent Bites I have pointed to this degree area as sensitive to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the like. Afghanistan’s north node falls at 27 degrees Gemini. In other words, the moment the quake occurred the Ascendant was conjoined to the country’s eclipse point. And it is, of course, a highly earthquake-prone area. The Midheaven at 8 Degrees of Pisces was conjunct the nation’s Mars and squaring its Saturn-Pluto opposition. The Sun at 8 degrees 38ʹ Virgo was conjoined to the IC and at the midpoint of the Moon and Uranus. The Moon (15 degrees Sagittarius) was conjoined to the country’s Pluto and in-square to the total lunar eclipse set to take place on 7 September. (Eclipses not only have elastic timelines, but the imprint of the eclipse, the degree area involved, will figure in the chart of certain significant events in the surrounding weeks.)
Of course, sadly, none of these astrological factors will help warn of an eruption. It is just fascinating to see the symbolism of the earthquake and its resonances with the nation involved at that moment in time.
TREMORS OF AN entirely different kind were to be felt at the sight of President Xi Jinping walking down a red carpet flanked by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un with a host of other dictators and sundry authoritarians behind them. It was September 3rd and China was celebrating its victory over Japan in World War II. It was only the second time that the historic event had been celebrated with a full military parade, and in the same way as the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics (2008) was staggering in its scale and content, so too was this event.
The Victory Day celebration comes at a time when the world order is changing and, aside from the country’s might in terms of its war machinery being on display, so too were the leaders and nations at the helm of the new world order. (Did I hear the words, “The Unholy Trinity” in my ear just then?)
It sent a profound message to the West. And poor President Trump had his nose bent severely out of joint.
WHICH BRINGS ME to another notable event of the past week, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, openly referring to the American President as a “Soviet or Russian asset” at a Portuguese Socialist Party gathering. Portugal was in the news for more tragic reasons later in the week when one of Lisbon’s famous funicular cars derailed and came hurtling down the street, breaking up like a cardboard box when it hit a building. Seventeen people were killed and many injured. Currently, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction is on the country’s IC and the focus of the forthcoming solar eclipse of 21 September.
IT HAS NOT been a good week for Donald Trump. The rumour mill had been grinding since before the Labour Day weekend when it occurred to people that the president had been uncharacteristically silent and out of view for more than a week. His health has been a topic of interest for some time, but in keeping with his sobriquet, the Teflon President, he used his first public appearance in a week not only to announce that the US Space Command headquarters will move to Huntsville, Alabama, but to debunk stories of his imminent demise.
I’m not a conspiracy lover but I suggest we watch this space. The forthcoming solar eclipse falls smack on the USA’s Midheaven, suggesting a new chapter for the government and the president. As I said last week, however, it may take until the following solar eclipse of 17 February 2026 for the situation to fully play out.
STILL IN POLITICS but across the pond in Blighty, it’s been a difficult week for the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner (Sun Aries/Moon Virgo). The acquisition of an £800,000 apartment on the Hove seafront appears to have been purchased without the correct amount of stamp duty (tax) being paid. A situation made all the more embarrassing because Ms Rayner is the Secretary of State for Housing. At the time of writing, Ms Rayner has not resigned, but it wouldn’t be out of the question for the government to lose one of its top people on a total lunar eclipse. Plus, it was Sir Keir’s sixty-third birthday on Wednesday (Sun exactly conjunct Pluto in Virgo).
EVEN IF YOU were not aware of the turmoil taking place at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the public health agency of the United States), you will probably have heard of Robert F Kennedy Jr..
RFK Jr, was always going to be a controversial choice to look after the nation’s health given that he has no medical background and holds some unconventional views on health, particularly vaccines. On 9 June, Kennedy removed all seventeen members of the vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with several of his allies including some vaccine sceptics. Fast forward to 26 August: Kennedy ordered Susan Monarez, the director of the CDC, to fire several high-ranking members of the organization. She refused and he fired her. Monarez’ lawyers advised her to remain in her post since Kennedy did not appoint her. It was up to the White House to hire and fire. Which they did on the 27th.
It was against this background that Kennedy appeared before a Senate Committee convened to review his record as Health Secretary.
FYI, on the same day, Florida’s Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, announced that the state was moving to end all vaccine mandates comparing these life-saving measures to slavery.
I looked at Robert F Kennedy’s chart when he was running for president, and came to the conclusion that it was not the horoscope of a president. A cluster of planets in his sixth house – Sun, Mercury, Venus, the north node and Chiron – are all squaring Neptune, conjoined to the IC, and Uranus (in the twelfth house) is opposed to all his Capricorn planets and squares Neptune forming an impressive T-square in Cardinal signs. While admittedly, such friction in a chart can inspire greatness, and in this case with these planets involved, a selfless devotion to the care and well-being of other people, sometimes life is too hard to cope with and escapism by one route or another is the response.
Ironically, with all those sixth house planets and the angular Neptune, Kennedy would have made a fine doctor, and these factors certainly explain why he has ended up in charge of the nation’s health and well-being.
Neptune conjunct the IC and in the fourth house along with Mars and Saturn speak volumes about his illustrious but tragic background. Like so many people with Neptune in the fourth house (King Charles comes to mind) he has struggled with imposter-syndrome. With Leo rising and the Sun in Capricorn, Kennedy probably believes he was born to follow in the hallowed footsteps of his father and uncle, yet deep down he fears he doesn’t have what it takes. He’s not worthy enough. In a recent podcast for The Daily Beast, Michael Wolff, the award-winning writer and author of three best-selling tomes on Donald Trump, said that Kennedy with whom he had spent years “on the trail” was mentally scarred by his father’s and uncle’s assassinations, which almost certainly led to his drug abuse.
The Kennedy family has distanced itself from RFK jr. Indeed, his cousin Caroline (daughter of JFK and former US ambassador) wrote a letter to the Senate prior to his confirmation hearing citing his drug addiction and lack of medical experience as reasons not to appoint him as Health Secretary: “[Bobby holds] dangerous and wilfully misinformed views on vaccines… he is addicted to attention and power.”
Which brings us to today and Thursday’s stormy hearing before the Senate Committee. There have been calls for his resignation, but with Trump’s backing – essential to keep the MAGA voters on side – he will survive the current brouhaha at the CDC. He’ll live to fight another day. Nonetheless, with transiting Pluto hovering over his Descendant for another year and Saturn set to reach his Midheaven in the spring of 2026, his days as Health and Human Services Secretary are numbered. The worrying thing is, just how many children will die from perfectly preventable diseases in the meantime.
I thought I’d leave you with another look at the chart of the total lunar eclipse. In reality, it will be visible across most of the world on Sunday, with the exception of North and South America, and it will loom large because the Moon is so close to Earth. What it bodes remains in shadow for the moment.
I’m taking a short holiday next week so there will be no Friday Bite. I apologize, but I’m not a robot!