Friday Bite 25 July 2025

Summer of Discontent

IT IS SIX months since Donald Trump took office, and almost six months have passed from the new moon in Aquarius (29 January) to the full moon in Aquarius (9 August). So, we’re at a point of assessment. How far has the administration come in fulfilling its promises? Is it time to abandon the policies that have failed and begin a new, more successful (or controversial) chapter? Is it time to get rid of those who are deemed to have been the architects of failure and bring in a few new faces? Or is it time to celebrate the achievements, and to recommit to the same course?

President Trump was sworn in on a Sun-Pluto conjunction opposing Mars – a configuration acquiring more power by its position on the MC-IC axis. (Planets on angles assume greater significance.) In this opposition alone, we can see the many fierce battles that have occurred on the way to fulfilling the administration’s ambitious and extreme agenda. In a mere six months, the United States has morphed into a new version of itself that many of its global partners and friends do not recognize.

Among the many high points of the last six months (or low, depending on your opinion) the Trump administration has gutted the civil service, removed more than 100,000 jobs, shut down the Department of Education, sent the National Guard and the Marines onto the streets of Los Angeles to quell protests, closed USAID, bombed Iran, embarked on a programme of mass deportation and set about ending birthright citizenship. Leaders of foreign countries have been ambushed at press briefings in the White House and eye-watering tariffs placed on various nations.

According to The Hill, President Trump and the Republicans are in better shape than they were eight years ago; Trump’s approval rating is, on average, 45 percent. According to a July poll from Gallup, however, Trump’s approval rating has slumped to 37 percent. And judging by the millions of people who have poured onto the streets to protest the actions of the administration over the course of the past six months, a growing number of Americans are far from happy with the president and the government. Maybe a tad more than 37 percent.

At this six-month point, the Sun is now opposing Pluto – in fact, there was a new moon in opposition to Pluto on Thursday – and accordingly, events are challenging the president and his administration to prove their legitimacy. Thus, is it any surprise that Mr Trump should find himself embroiled in a controversy that could well dethrone him.

As I mentioned in last week’s Bite, in an effort to appease his MAGA supporters and produce information regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s affairs, President Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce “any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony subject to Court approval”. As expected, on Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida denied the request, writing, “The court’s hands are tied.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi had informed the president in May that his name appeared in Justice Department documents related to Jeffrey Epstein – a report dismissed by the White House as “fake news”. On the same day, a House subcommittee voted to subpoena the Justice Department for files in the sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Caught between a rock and a hard place (loyalty to Trump and his own members) Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home a day early for summer recess.

On Thursday, Todd Blanche, the US Deputy Attorney General, interviewed Epstein’s associate in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is serving a twenty-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking.

You see where I’m going. Ms Maxwell’s days in prison are numbered. One way or another.

A Moon-Jupiter opposition flanking the MC-IC axis places a dividing line between the eastern and western hemisphere of Ms Maxwell’s natal chart. All the planets and the lights occupy the western hemisphere, indicating a life largely influenced by circumstance. She epitomizes the poor-little-rich-girl.

Ghislaine was born on Christmas Day, three days before her fifteen-year-old brother was injured in a car crash. The crash left him in a coma for the remaining seven years of his life. In consequence. Ghislaine grew up as an emotionally neglected little girl. She had everything money could buy but no love or attention.

Her father, the late, disgraced newspaper mogul, Robert Maxwell, spoiled Ghislaine, yet he was the proverbial monster and certainly a narcissist. In an interview with a childhood friend, Eleanor Berry, nine-year-old Ghislaine was to say, “Daddy is really nice because he lets me choose the things he beats me with”.

Like so many abused children – not all, I hasten to say – Ghislaine shows many signs of sociopathic behaviour, which certainly explains her willingness to do pretty well anything for the man she loved, Jeffrey Epstein, who in turn used and abused her.

The Moon-Jupiter opposition is squared by Neptune, which reflects the rejection and abuse she experienced as a child. A similar astrological set-up is to be found in Princess Diana’s chart. And while Ghislaine is no Diana, she is a victim as indeed was Diana. Which is why, faced with the might of the powers-that-be ranged against her, a happy outcome is unlikely. Whether she is given a pardon or her case is overturned, her life thereafter will be precarious.

At this point in time, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction is squaring her natal Sun-Mars conjunction – a transit that will continue to be active until mid-2026 – so the jury is out as to whether this is a dream of freedom come true or a poisoned chalice.

I know what I think.

Friday Bite 18 July 2025

Secrets, lies and Screw-ups

To have one presenter of a mega-successful series be fired through misconduct is bad enough, but two… The series is too beloved to be mortally wounded, but it has sustained an injury. As you can see from the chart above, the first show aired at 8:00 pm on 2 July 1990, so it has just turned thirty-five. It has weathered Saturn-Pluto storms and Uranus upsets, but what is presiding over these recent developments is the Saturn-Neptune conjunction – a factor which also plays a part in my main topic, the Epstein affair.

MasterChef was born on the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, some months after the Berlin Wall came down. Now, as then, Jupiter was in Cancer. So, we are witnessing the end of a chapter – and in chaotic and confusing circumstances – which will give birth to a new and very different era. As for the two hosts of the show: John Torode has been under Uranus – so this development came completely out of the blue (Uranus squaring his Mercury-Venus conjunction in Leo) while Greg Wallace is facing a similar Uranus transit to his natal Saturn, which in turn triggers a Grand Cross in fixed signs: he is undergoing the lesson of a lifetime.

JOINING THE LIST of celebrities whose television lives have experienced a sudden rupture is Stephen Colbert, presenter of The Late Show, one of the most enduring programmes on American television. On Thursday. Mr Colbert learned that he had been cancelled. The show will air until May next year, but thereafter, no more. While traditional, mainstream television companies have seen their viewing numbers sharply decline in recent years due to the rise and rise of streaming services, it may be no coincidence that the announcement came three days after Colbert had called out Paramount for capitulating to Donald Trump and settling his lawsuit against the company’s 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Colbert has long been an outspoken critic of the president.

At least Colbert can count his blessings in that he wasn’t defenestrated like so many of Putin’s critics

Before I get into the Epstein fiasco, mention should be made of Grok, the AI chatbot who recently ran amok on X, morphing into a genocidal dictator and calling itself MechaHitler. X apologized for its recalcitrant bot, deleting offensive posts and embarking on a reprogramming exercise. Entirely unconnected but still part of the turmoil that has engulfed Elon Musk, on Wednesday, X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned.

Under these alignments, there is nowhere to hide.

AND SO TO the conspiracy that refuses to die. One of the vows Donald Trump made during his campaign for re-election was that he would release all documentation related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

It was a vow his MAGA supporters would hold him to.

To bring you up to speed. On Monday, 7 July, the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo claiming that there was no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein had a list of powerful men who participated in his alleged underworld of sex-trafficking and paedophilia. This memo flew in the face of a statement Attorney General Pam Bondi made in February on Fox News that the client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.

In 2008, Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute for which he served a thirteen-month sentence. In July 2019 he was arrested on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. While awaiting trial in a New York jail, he committed suicide. Allegedly.

Supporting Monday’s memo, the Justice Department released ten hours of security footage taken from a camera overlooking Epstein’s cell on the day he died. The intent being to prove that no one entered his cell and facilitated his demise. However, metadata from this surveillance video reveals nearly three minutes of footage were cut thus reigniting the conspiracy theory. View: Epstein’s Prison video

To cut a very long and convoluted story short, it has long been believed that there was a lot more to Donald Trump’s fifteen-year friendship with Epstein than mutual professional and social interests. They shared a love of very young and beautiful women. Yet another issue the president has sought to dismiss, despite photographs to the contrary and claims that he had taken the Lolita Express to Epstein’s island sex- sanctuary.

Unfortunately for the president, today, the Wall Street Journal published a greeting allegedly sent by Trump to Epstein on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. The greeting contained several lines of type-written text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to have been drawn by a heavy black marker pen. It ends with the cryptic sentiment:

“A pal is a wonderful thing, Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The president has threatened to sue the publication and claimed the letter is a fake. And in a bid to tamp down further controversy he has directed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release Court documents related to Epstein’s sex-trafficking case.

It remains to be seen whether any of these actions will appease his disaffected MAGA supporters.

Sadly, we do not have a time of birth for Epstein and must make do with a sunrise chart. There is a speculative time of 3:15 in the morning, but this was established by rectification and therefore unreliable. Also, the astrologer who rectified the time was a Vedic practitioner and using the sidereal system of astrology. Accordingly, Scorpio rises. However, western astrology is based on the tropical system, and produces a Sagittarian Ascendant for the same time. And this chart does not speak to me. Hence a sunrise chart.

The Sun moved into Aquarius on the day Epstein was born so he could be a Capricorn. As it is, the Sun squares a Saturn-Neptune conjunction, which explains his nefarious activities, although with a different consciousness he could have been a saint and certainly a humanitarian. Clearly, that was not his destiny.

What interests me most at this time, however, is his natal Saturn-Neptune conjunction, which is brought to life by the current Saturn-Neptune conjunction. It is as though unfinished business is ready to be completed. Old scores require settling. The past is reaching into the present and demanding resolution. Epstein may no longer be with us but he is a big part of the conversation – a very big part of the conversation, and possibly the catalyst of Trump’s political demise.

Et tu, Brute.

Not for the first time has time got the better of me, however, I will continue to comment on the Epstein affair in future Bites as I am sure this part of the story has only just begun.