Friday Bite 17 October 2025

Piece by Piece

“A new and beautiful day is rising, and now the rebuilding begins.” Donald Trump, 13 October

[The No Kings event] “is about loving America, not hating it… It’s a rally of millions of people all over this country who believe in our Constitution, who believe in American freedom and are not going to let you [Republican lawmakers] and Donald Trump turn this country into an authoritarian society.” Senator Bernie Sanders, 14 October

IT’S BEEN A mere four days since the leaders of the United States, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt signed the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Gaza and Israel. An historic moment witnessed by leaders of twenty-seven countries. The jubilance of that day is fast disappearing into the dust, however, given the dawning of awareness that not only is the ceasefire incredibly fragile – already terrorist factions have opened fire on one another – but that the hurdles to overcome in the 20-step programme may prove insurmountable, not least Hamas’ laying down its arms and Israel’s agreeing to Gaza being governed in any way shape or form by Palestine.

And let’s not forget, the two parties concerned – Israel and Gaza – only committed to the first phase of the peace plan.

A mere three days after that glorious Monday, Donald Trump was again at the helm of the peace-in-our time programme, endeavouring to resolve yet another global conflict – that’s eight to date according to Mr Trump, if you include Albania and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Azerbaijan and Ethiopia and Egypt. Hours before Volodymir Zelensky was set to meet with the President in the Oval office – the Ukrainian leader flushed with expectancy that Trump was about to put his full weight behind Ukraine – Trump performed another volte face and announced a meeting in Hungary with Vladimir Putin.

As I put this Friday Bite together, Trump and Zelensky have yet to meet.

Meanwhile, in the new normal that is America, this week virtually the entire press corps that covered the goings-on in the Pentagon left the building. They left because they refused to agree to the twenty-one-page list of press restrictions that prevented them from doing their job – gathering information on matters of defence and national security and reporting it to the public.

Then on Thursday, John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor and now fierce critic of the president, was indicted on eighteen counts of communicating secret information to those not entitled to receive it, and unauthorized possession of documents containing secret information. It’s hard not to view this as anything less than an act of retribution by the president who himself was accused of keeping top secret files after he had left office.

And, before we get into the astrology, I want to mention the very public humiliation of UK prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who was snubbed by President Trump when he came up to greet him on the podium at Monday’s grand gathering in Sharm el Sheik. Normally, a mild-mannered man, a Trump whisperer no less, on his return to England, Sir Keir cancelled a US-UK economic consultation and summoned the US ambassador for an explanation.

Ruffled feathers indeed.

LAST WEEK I examined the chart of the ceasefire, or to be more precise, Israel’s ratification of the Trump plan, and suggested the positives outweighed the negatives, and that it gave a strong indication that the ceasefire would hold, albeit periodically appearing to fracture. Now, however, we have a horoscope of the Gaza 20-step peace plan, which was signed and witnessed in a grand ceremony on Monday at 19:26 local time.

On Monday afternoon, as leaders gathered for the signing ceremony, I was recording my video on the new moon in Libra. Given it was such an auspicious day I decided to talk about the astrology that was presiding over this important event. I set up the chart for 6 o’clock in the evening (an arbitrary time since I had no idea when the agreement would be signed), which placed 7 degrees of Taurus on the Ascendant, designating Venus the ruler, which was part of a Grand Trine involving Uranus and Pluto. My first thought was that the Venus rulership boded well for the future of the peace plan. Not only Venus but also the Moon in Cancer was conjunct Jupiter and part of another Grand Trine involving Mars and Saturn. (The trine between Mars and Saturn was wide, but it was nonetheless valid because Mars trines the Moon which is in turn trine Saturn.)

What also leapt out of this chart was that Venus at 29 degrees Virgo was within minutes of the solar eclipse of 21 September. And the signature of an eclipse is almost always present in the chart of a game-changing event.

Venus is opposed to Saturn (and Neptune) which suggests a false dawn and many problems, on the one hand, but, on the other, Venus and Saturn are a good combination for a peace you hope will endure. Plus, Venus-Neptune combos speak of divine love and acts of compassion. Surely, things that must be at the heart of a peace agreement.

The Jupiter-Pluto opposition is yet to become exact – that will happen on 20 July next year – but it is already in play. And Jupiter-Pluto combos are all about events that affect the masses. (Jupiter and Pluto were in conjunction throughout 2020 and the arrival and spread of Covid.)

You may be ahead of me here, but if you look at the shape these two Grand Trines form, a hexagram appears. And a hexagram or six-pointed star is a powerful symbol. It symbolizes light and love, the union of the divine and the mortal and, of course, it is the Star of David. I don’t want to get carried away with the idea that somehow the hand of God is upon this moment – and we must remember there would be countless events happening all over the world at this time – but it is interesting. Just like the mysterious interstellar object (3I-Atlas) that entered our solar system in the summer and somehow managed to align itself with the ecliptic need not have an alien force behind it, but it is interesting.

An hour or so after I had finished my video, the Gaza 20 step programme for peace was signed. And what a difference an hour and a half makes;

The all-powerful hexagram remains, but instead of Taurus rising with peace-loving Venus as the ruler, Gemini rises yielding a Mercury rulership. And Mercury is conjunct Mars (and in Scorpio) suggesting spirited arguments at best but violent acts and disagreements at worse. More important, Uranus is sitting on the Ascendant placing its anarchic, controversial and unmanageable signature on the agreement and its future. Plus, Uranus is also the ruler of the Midheaven, the direction of travel for the plan, which is yet another indication of random events making or breaking the deal.

Much as I hate to dampen all our hopes, the future for peace in this part of the world is looking more than fragile. There’s a lot resting on that hexagram to bring its promise of union to fruition. But maybe, maybe.

Friday Bite 10 October 2025

Peace at last?

“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” Donald Trump, 9 October

“His [Trump’s] decision to fire a United States Attorney [Erik Seibert] who refused to bring charges against me—and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president—is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country. This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.” Letitia James on being indicted for mortgage fraud by Lindsey Halligan, US attorney for the eastern District of Virginia, 9 October

“To capture a democratic nation, authoritarians must control three sources of power: the intelligence agencies, the justice system and the military. The intelligence community has effectively been muzzled, the nation’s top lawyers and cops are being purged and replaced with loyalists. Only the military remains out of Trump’s grip.” Tom Nichols, The Atlantic 7 October

THERE REALLY IS only one story: the peace agreement between Hamas and Israel. After two terrible years, almost 70,000 deaths, 2,000 of which were Israeli, and the near complete destruction of Gaza, finally the guns are silent. President Trump, whom it must be said put his heart and soul into delivering the peace agreement, deserves praise. He did not get the Nobel Peace Prize which was announced today – that went to Marià Corina Machado for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” – but maybe next year.

Before I take a look at the astrology of this long hoped for ceasefire, there was another powerful event within hours of the agreement. At 9:43 this morning a massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Philippine Sea, just off the coast of Mindanao. The expected tsunami did not follow, and only two deaths have been reported, unlike the previous earthquake in the Philippines on 30 September in which 74 people died and more than 1000 were injured.

I take a great interest in earthquakes and over the years have found eclipses, full moons and new moons, along with angular outer planets and 28 degrees of Gemini to be regular participants. In the earthquake of 30 September and 10 October, the nodal axis (the place at which eclipses occur) was close to the MC-IC axis; more important, the current position of the nodal axis (18 degrees Virgo) is precisely square Uranus in the chart of the Philippines. Plus, for good measure, Uranus, in the nation’s 10th house, is leading all the planets around the horoscope and squaring the Moon in Virgo. And if all that isn’t enough, currently, transiting Uranus is squaring the Philippine’s natal Ascendant.

The Philippines lie in an earthquake prone zone, a factor perfectly represented by that dominant Uranus in precise conjunction with the nation’s north node.

Twenty-eight degrees of Gemini did not figure in the charts of either earthquake, however, Saturn at both times (27 degrees Pisces 06’/47’) was squaring that all-important degree. Certainly, it can be no coincidence that Uranus, as the great groundbreaker of the solar system, should be in such high profile at this time.

AND SPEAKING OF the great groundbreaker. Uranus was also a key player in the brokering of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire.

So desperately does the world want peace in Gaza that the prospect of problems further down the line doesn’t bear thinking about. But there are going to be some major obstacles to overcome in Trump’s 20-point plan, not least Hamas agreeing to lay down its arms and Israel agreeing to the Palestinian Authority ultimately taking control of Gaza.

The chart of Israel’s ratification of the Trump plan can tell us a lot about the prospects for its success. Cancer rises with the Moon, the ruler, in trine to Venus and sextile Saturn. Indeed, the Moon is part of the Kite configuration that has presided over so many of 2025’s pivotal events. So far, so good. Things are looking promising. However, the Moon is conjunct Uranus, which could point to a collapse of the ceasefire, although Uranus is not in the same sign, which may mitigate the volatile nature of this conjunction.

Neptune is the most elevated planet and closely conjunct the Midheaven and opposing Venus. Venus is also opposing Saturn, which is conjunct Neptune and the Midheaven.  These oppositions are the lynchpin of the Kite and effectively all-powerful. We could look at Neptune as the divine hand at work and its opposition to peace-bringer Venus as a sign of success. Likewise, we could look at the Venus-Saturn opposition as a portent of durability.  However, we could also see Neptune in its role as the Great Deceiver and Saturn crushing hopes and denying the fulfilment of the plan.

Saturn-Neptune conjunctions preside over the end of regimes and the emergence of new ones. That this conjunction is at the very top of the chart and the apex of the Kite alignment is an indication that an old pattern is indeed done and a new one coming into existence. And with Uranus and Pluto in tow, there is a sense that it is time, era ora.

This chart also makes some crucial connections to the charts of Israel, the USA, Hamas, Netanyahu and Donald Trump

Neptune: 0:Aries 19/Midheaven 1 Aries 04

USA IC: 1 Aries 03

Jupiter: 23 Cancer 27

Israel MC: 23 Cancer/Israel Asc: 23 Libra Hamas’ Moon: 23 Libra Trump’s Saturn 23 Cancer

Moon: 24 Taurus 36

Israel Sun: 24 Taurus  – Trump’s MC 24 Taurus

Sun: 16 Libra 48

Netanyahu’s MC: 16 Libra/South Node 16 Libra/Neptune 15 Libra  USA Saturn: 15 Libra Trump’s Jupiter 17 Libra

Mars: 11 Scorpio

Hamas Pluto: 10 Scorpio

Uranus: 1 Gemini 00

Hamas Asc: 1 Gemini    Hamas Jupiter 3 Gemini

I’m not going to go through all these connections one by one, suffice to say that the many significant links to all the above individuals, nations and organizations supports the lofty purpose of the deal. This attempt to finally resolve the Israel-Hamas/Palestine situation has heft and weft. While the strong Jupiter connections suggest success and glory, the equally powerful Neptune links warn of hope over experience and its ultimate failure.

I am encouraged by the chart of Hamas though.

This chart represents the day the founding documents were signed. As this terrorist organization comes to the table, solar arc Neptune is conjunct the natal Midheaven and transiting Uranus hovers over the natal Ascendant. Dissolution and break-up are redolent in these connections, and it may be that Hamas has no alternative but to agree terms and fade into the background.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. This time, however, there is an important difference, the Middle Eastern states have come together and in one voice given their backing to the 20 point-peace plan. If it fails, it may well be down to the far-right element in the Israeli government, and not Hamas.

We’ll see.