Friday Bite: 12 April 2024

Just getting Started

Iran – Israel – Russia – Netanyahu – Putin – the Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction

MONDAY’S TOTAL SOLAR eclipse did not disappoint. Those gathered under its path from Mexico to Canada talked about the awe they felt when day turned to night, the birds stopped singing and the temperature chilled. We rarely think of Earth as a planet revolving around the Sun, but eclipses make us aware of our place in the celestial scheme of things. It’s big stuff. For sky watchers of the astrological kind, however, it is also the events this solar eclipse will preside over that have the capacity to deliver shock and awe.

This is my third Friday Bite since the lunar eclipse of 25 March, and already we have witnessed history-making events — the terrorist attack on Moscow’s concert hall, Princess Catherine’s cancer diagnosis, the collapse of the Francis Scott Bridge in Baltimore and the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus to name but a handful – but be sure, there are more to come.

What is making this season of eclipses even more impressive is the approach of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction (20/21 April). We are already feeling the effects of this conjunction in both the shifts we are experiencing individually and the earth-moving events on the world’s stage.

I have just completed a video on this conjunction but to give you a little teaser, in 1969, on the precise day of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction man walked on the Moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – the quintessence of a Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. And it is no mere coincidence that man is about to return to the Moon for the first time since July 1969 in this Jupiter-Uranus year. Not all such resonances are groundbreaking in a good way though, and key stages in the development of the atom bomb and its usage have occurred in Jupiter-Uranus years.

With so many global figures and key nations sensitive to both the eclipses and the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, I wanted to take a deeper dive into Russia and Vladimir Putin and Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu. Events over the course of the next few weeks could prove pivotal to all their futures.

I have set this chart from the perspective of Tehran since the spectre of war between Iran and Israel looms large at this time. Israel’s strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April was unlikely to pass without notice and, on Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that Israel will be punished, “The Zionist regime made a mistake and must be punished and will be punished.”

This comes at a delicate time for Israel’s relationship with the United States. Always a staunch supporter of Israel, in recent weeks Joe Biden has made it increasingly clear that Israel must do more to relieve the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, “I think what he [Netanyahu] is doing is a mistake”. However, on Wednesday, in response to the warning from Khamenei, the US president promised “ironclad support” for Israel.

Were these exchanges to be happening at a different time, one not in the wake of a total solar eclipse, an applying Jupiter-Uranus conjunction and a Sun-Pluto square, the danger of an all-out war in the region would be less likely, as it is we are probably looking at a major strike on Israel’s territory (not necessarily in the country itself) in the coming days.

The above chart represents the moment the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran after fourteen years in exile. It led to the collapse of the provisional government and the final overthrow of the Shah of Iran ten days later.

Monday’s total solar eclipse fell on Iran’s natal Pluto while the preceding solar eclipse (14 October 2023) conjoined it. Thus is Iran’s handprint on the Gaza conflict.

Transiting Pluto (2 degrees Aquarius) is within a degree of opposition to Iran’s Jupiter, which rules the Midheaven, suggesting the government is feeling empowered and bent on revenge. However, with Neptune currently squaring its Midheaven and natal Venus, Iran must be careful not to fall into a trap and be hoisted by its own petard. And could that trap be an unintended invitation to Israel to strike its nuclear complex inside a mountain on the edge of Iran’s Great Salt Desert?

Iran is currently experiencing its Saturn opposition, which is another reason not to overextend itself as failure is likely. And, you may notice, Mars is currently conjoined to Saturn and, at the time of the solar eclipse, opposing the Midheaven. Certainly, we see deadly force in this configuration, but deadly force has equally deadly consequences.

We should also not forget that Iran is facing severe internal and domestic problems too, which are reflected in the alignments of the time. As indeed, during the previous Jupiter-Uranus conjunction (2010/11) the country faced mass anti-government demonstrations as part of the overall spread of the Arab Spring.

If we trust the astrology to reveal when Iran will strike back at Israel, the 14/15 April and the 21/22 April are the most likely candidates. On the 14^/15, the Moon in Cancer will be squaring Iran’s Pluto and the total solar eclipse and on the 21/22 the Moon will be in Libra, conjoined to natal Pluto and opposing the recent eclipse. Sunday, 21 is the day of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which opposes Iran’s natal Uranus, while the Sun is squaring transiting Pluto.

Clearly, 21/22 April provides the clearest indication of an attack, but my long experience as an astrologer has taught me time and time again that perfect timing isn’t always foreseeable; major events tend to happen around a “perfect moment”.

Monday’s total solar eclipse fell within four degrees of Israel’s Descendant while the October solar eclipse fell at the opposite point (Ascendant). It is a little too wide for my liking but the narrative of October’s massacre and the ensuing war are clearly reflected in these two eclipses. What is even more pivotal at this time is the forthcoming Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which will be conjoined to Israel’s Sun and precisely opposing its natal Chiron. (You can read more about this in the Friday Bite that follows this one.)

There is more than one time of birth given for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but I recommend the above. The time was provided by the Israeli astrologer, Dalia Stupp who says it was given to her by Netanyahu himself when she read for him. As you will see, the October solar eclipse fell on the prime minister’s Moon while Monday’s eclipse opposed the Moon. Currently, Saturn is opposed to natal Saturn. So, you don’t have to look very far to see the astrological signatures on Netanyahu’s dilemmas.

In relation to the issue over the time of birth, by progressed solar-arc, the Ascendant has reached 15 degrees of Pisces (opposing natal Saturn) while solar-arc Neptune is conjoined to his Ascendant. Currently, transiting Neptune (28 Pisces) is squaring his Ascendant-Descendant axis.

Case closed, I think.

Netanyahu currently does not have any major Pluto transit, which can be a clear indication of the ascent to or descent from power, but the above Saturn and Neptune transits combined with the solar-arc progressions are enough to support his resignation/downfall. Add to this the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction squaring his natal Mars-Pluto conjunction and that scenario may prove sooner than later.

VLADIMIR PUTIN IS also a primary target for the unexpected and the unwelcome, courtesy of the combined effects of the eclipses and the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. Last October’s solar eclipse fell precisely on his natal Neptune (and drew in the Sun, Saturn and Mercury) while Monday’s total solar eclipse opposed that same Libran cluster.

The approaching Jupiter-Uranus conjunction will conjoin his natal Jupiter, inconjunct his natal Neptune and square his MC-IC axis and natal Pluto. To add to the fun, Pluto is within a degree of a square to his Scorpio Ascendant and transiting Neptune squaring his natal Mars. By solar-arc progression, Pluto and the Midheaven have arrived at his Ascendant and s-a Sun has reached his natal Mars.

Make no mistake, no matter how in-charge Putin appears, he is under threat. As indeed he was last year when Yevgeny Prigozhin mounted his March on Moscow. On 23 June 2023, Uranus was making its first pass over the president’s natal Jupiter (simultaneously squaring natal Pluto and the MC-IC axis) while transiting Mars at 20 Leo was not only squaring Uranus at the time but also his natal Pluto and the MC-IC axis.

Thus, this will be the third and final time Uranus will connect to the aforementioned planets and points, and Jupiter will be alongside to make matters even more sensational. We could say the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction is empowering and disempowering at the same time: it can bring people unexpectedly to power and good fortune and it can also suddenly upend them.

However, however. Just because we have a repetition of the influences that temporarily knocked Putin off his perch, doesn’t mean it’s a case of third-time’s-a-charm and we’ll see the Russian president despatched to the place dictators go to after they’ve passed their sell-by date.

While Russia is similarly exposed to the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction – it is opposing its natal Venus-Pluto conjunction – the real signs of fundamental change for the country come in 2025 and 2026. And it is for this reason I am not at all sure that Putin is poised for exile just yet. I am sure though, there are plots afoot and that developments in this late April time will be part of the end times for Mr Putin.

Why I say 2025-2026 is a period of great change for Russia is that Saturn and Neptune will be in conjunction at that time, and the Saturn-Neptune cycle is central to the story of modern Russia. I will deal with this further in 2025, but suffice to say that 1917 and the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Leo marked the end of Tsarist rule (the abdication and subsequent assassination of Nicolas II and the Romanov family) and the October Revolution which effectively gave birth to communist Russia. In 1989, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union.  And so, we can look to 2025/2026 for the deepest and most profound changes in Russia.

Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu are not the only world leaders to be in the sights of these powerful configurations, President Biden, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron are others. All six men are vulnerable to the slings and arrows of fate at this time and during the course of 2024 and by 2025 quite possibly all of them will have suffered a defeat and left the global stage.

We’re only getting started.

Friday Bite: 5 April 2024

Earth-shattering

Taiwan earthquake – Israel and Gaza

THE PERIOD BETWEEN eclipses is delicate. Since the lunar eclipse of 25 March, there have been a string of important global events. Now, three days before the total solar eclipse, that number is growing.

On Wednesday morning, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Hualien in Taiwan. It was the strongest earthquake to strike the country in twenty-five years. To date, ten people have died and more than one thousand have been injured. The number of fatalities would have been greater had Taiwan not increased its earthquake preparedness after the 1999 earthquake.

Many of you will have seen footage of a partly collapsed building left tilting at a 45-degree angle, that building is called Uranus.

On Monday, Iran’s embassy in Damascus was bombed, killing seven of its top military personnel including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, senior commander in its elite Quds Force. Iran and Syria accused Israel. Israel responded by saying that it did not comment on foreign reports and that “according to our intelligence, this is no consulate and this is no embassy.”

Later that same day, seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen were killed when Israeli missiles hit a three-vehicle convoy in southern Gaza. Three of the aid workers who died were British, one Australian, another Polish and two more, American-Canadian and Palestinian. 

The killing of these seven aid-workers has been hailed as a watershed moment in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Let’s start with the earthquake in Taiwan.

The above chart graphically reflects the moment the ground beneath the city of Hualien shook. Uranus has just risen, conjoined to Jupiter and trining the Moon, all planets compacted into a 120-degree space. I’m not entirely convinced that the tightly-packed bundle of planets intensifies critical events, but it might. And since the Moon is the only celestial body to be moving apace — 13 degrees in a twenty-four-hour period — it can be seen as the catalyst to those events. Hence the power of the lunar eclipse on 25 March to change lives and destinies. (Moon in Libra opposing the Sun at the centre of the cluster – see last week’s Friday Bite.)

Uranus, of course, rises every day in every part of the world, albeit at different times, so on its own it’s not what you’d call earth-shattering! However, ground-breaking developments are the hallmark of Uranus, whether man walks on the Moon for the first time, Russia invades Ukraine, two people fall in love at first sight or an intruder breaks into Buckingham Palace and, after perusing George V’s stamp collection, stumbles across the Queen’s bedroom and engages Her Majesty in a conversation about his troubles. (You may wonder why I recall this incident in 1982: it was because I gave birth at that exact moment.)

The astrology of earthquakes is fascinating [(LInk to my article about earhtquakes]. Eclipses and full moons, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto tend to be recurring factors, although by no means front-forward at the time of all major earthquakes. However, if you had to guess where Uranus was when the earth beneath you erupts, it would probably be on one of the four angles of the chart or in some other prominent position.

I think it worth mentioning that with the total solar eclipse occurring some twelve days before the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which also just happens to be taking place as the Sun squares Pluto, we can expect more earthquakes and more devastation courtesy of Gaia in the very near future.

The astrology of an earthquake should also have a reference to the natal chart of the country in which it happens. This is a little complicated in Taiwan’s case because there are two horoscopes to consider. In 1912 when the Republic of China was formed, Taiwan was part of the Republic. However, in 1949, when the Chinese Civil War ended in victory for the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong, the defeated Nationalist party led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and established a Nationalist government there.

The 1912 chart is the chart of the Republic of China when Taiwan was part of the country; the 1949 horoscope marks the time Taiwan became its own separate entity. While some astrologers continue to use the 1912 chart for China today, others, including myself, prefer the 1949 horoscope, which represents the time China morphed into a new version of itself becoming the People’s Republic of China.

The 1949 chart for Taiwan, in keeping with many nations that have split off from the “parent” country, retains key degree areas and configurations of the 1912 horoscope. Twenty to twenty-six degrees of the fixed signs is one such degree area: it is Taiwan’s Ascendant-Descendant axis (20 Aquarius/Leo) and Venus at 19 degrees Scorpio squares a Mars-Pluto conjunction in Leo; China (1912) has a Moon-Mars conjunction at 21/24 Taurus opposing Venus at 25 Scorpio.

But back to earthquakes. At this point in time, Uranus is triggering all the aforementioned charts, reflecting the instability of the times and the ongoing tension between the two countries. And we could see the Hualien earthquake as the physical manifestation of this tension. However, a more concerted effort to bring Taiwan back into China’s fold could be near at hand.

I do not want to tie us in knots over all the degree areas that are being teed off at present – rising Uranus (conjoined to Jupiter) squaring Taiwan’s Ascendant-Descendant axis and its Mars-Pluto conjunction among them – but there are some echoes that are interesting to say the least. And resonances and synchronicities are central to the understanding and practice of astrology.

At the time of the great 1999 earthquake (21 September) the Moon was in late Capricorn conjoined to Neptune at 1 degree Aquarius 44; when Monday’s earthquake struck, the Moon was in late Capricorn conjoined to Pluto at 1 degree Aquarius 54. The Moon in both China’s and Taiwan’s charts is placed at 3 degrees of Aquarius.

Watch this space.

I THINK WE can all agree we want the war in Gaza to end and for neither party to continue to live in fear of being annihilated by the other. As we all know, members of Hamas mounted a terror attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages, most of whom have not been released. Israel responded in force, during the past six months rendering Gaza to rubble with the loss of more than 30,000 lives.

Which brings us to Monday’s missile strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy. Today, Israel has apologized for its “grave mistake” and said that the sequence of strikes was a “breach of the army’s standard operating procedures”. It appears that information about the convoy did not “make it down the chain of command” and a member of the WCK team was thought to be carrying a gun.

This tragic incident comes at a time when international support for Israel is declining and concerns for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are growing. In a telephone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden, who has been Israel’s staunchest ally, warned that continued US support would depend on Israel’s taking “specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers”.

Today, Israel announced it is to open new routes for humanitarian deliveries into Gaza. Which is why the events of the past five days have been seen as a potential turning point in the conflict.

To a certain extent, the astrology supports that notion. The forthcoming solar eclipse and the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction are the stuff of breakthroughs and certainly sudden and unexpected change. And there is also a case to be made for the start of the war on the solar eclipse in Libra and its end on the lunar eclipse in Libra, especially when October 14th’s solar eclipse (21 Libra) fell on Israel’s Ascendant and squared its Midheaven, and the recent lunar eclipse (5 degrees Aries-Libra) squared Israel’s Venus, the ruler of the chart.

The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction (20/21 April) will fall on Israel’s Sun and oppose its Chiron. Chiron can represent the unfixable problem, the existential wound, and when it is transited by the non-personal planets, particularly the trans-Saturnian planets, events invariably open up that existential wound. Since the Sun, the heart of the nation, is opposed to Chiron, the unfixable problem becomes its raison d’être. Israel’s right to exist free from persecution is therefore a constant source of struggle and pain.

Israel was born on a Jupiter-Uranus opposition, not only making it more responsive to the Jupiter-Uranus cycle, but currently Neptune is squaring it. (Neptune is also squaring Netanyahu’s Ascendant-Descendant axis while his Moon at 20 Libra is the focus for the approaching solar eclipse.) The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction promises liberation, on the one hand, escalating force on the other. Neptune warns of suffering and sacrifice, betrayal and loss.

Whether the next few weeks will see the end of the war in Gaza may be a bridge too far but there is certainly going to be a change of direction. And with change comes the prospect of new outcomes.

Eclipses are game-changers.