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Weekly Hello
MONDAY, 4 November – SUNDAY, 10 November
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This year, a Mars-Pluto opposition will be presiding over the celebrations, which is even more depth-charged and consequential, and entirely fitting for the events of this November the fifth and the US presidential election. And if you want to know more about my thoughts on the election, please take a look the current Friday Bite and my video on the New Moon in Scorpio.
Onward and Starward,
Friday Bite
Astrology of the Week’s Main Global Events
by
Penny Thornton
Friday Bite: 1 November 2024
What Happens in Georgia Doesn’t Stay in Georgia
Spain floods – Georgia election – US election
“One week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family, and the future of this country we love,” she said. “[I]t will probably be the most important vote you ever cast. And this election is more just than a choice between two parties and two different candidates. It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.” Kamala Harris, Ellipse Washington, 29 October
“We’re just not running against Kamala. I think a lot of our politicians here tonight know this. She means nothing, she’s purely a vessel, that’s all she is,” Donald Trump, Madison Square Garden, 27 October.
“I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” Tony Hinchcliffe, Madison Square Garden, 27 October.
ON TUESDAY, IN Valencia, Spain, people went about their business in the warmth of the late autumn sun. Twenty-four hours later, some of those people were no longer with us and many of the province’s towns and villages were unrecognizable. They resemble war zones. Apocalyptic almost. In some parts of the region, a year’s rainfall fell in eight hours. Torrents of water barrelled down streets, inundating buildings and demolishing bridges. Thus far, more than 150 people have lost their lives. There is growing criticism of the government’s failure to respond to the catastrophe.
Storms are a regular occurrence at this time of the year in this part of the world. They have a name for it. DANA – Depression Aisleda en Nivetes – but this was on a whole other level.
The above chart serves as an example of the current astrological patterns. As it happens, when the rains began to fall in Valencia (“around seven in the evening”) Uranus was rising, which certainly accounts for the fact that most people were taken by surprise: they did not receive an alert on their phones until eight o’clock, by which time the south of the city was in chaos with waters in the streets already two metres high.
A particular configuration is in play at the moment known as the Envelope. Not the most exotic of names for such a rare alignment, but it does suggest that something unknown lies within it – what’s in the envelope? The configuration has a Mystic Triangle at its base and a Minor Grand Trine on top of it.
To break it down, the Mystic Triangle is made up of two oppositions and two sextiles. In this case, Uranus is opposed to Mercury and Mars to Pluto, Uranus is trine Pluto and Mars trine Mercury while Mars and Uranus and Mercury and Pluto are in sextile. The Minor Grand Trine brings a new planet into the equation (Neptune) which generates two further sextiles to Pluto and Uranus. (I discussed this Minor Grand Trine in reference to the nuclear age in the Bite of 11 October, and have included that section at the end of this one.)
In terms of what the configuration means, we get some idea from the nature of the aspects that form it. While the sextiles, which are angles of harmony, provide a sixth-ness to the alignment’s effect (6 x 60°) – and six is the number of Venus, symbolizing harmony and balance — the rectangle with four sides is formed by two oppositions, which are angles of tension, and bring a fourth-ness into the mix. Four is the number of Saturn, inspiring structure, struggle and time.
The above chart is that of an event, not the birth of a baby, but since this configuration is associated with remarkable gifts and remarkable life challenges, it has placed its formidable signature on the singular events of the past seven days. And, in the way of synchronicities, my first grandchild was born on Monday…
We are living in a climate of extremes, as clearly revealed by the Mars-Pluto and Mercury-Uranus oppositions, yet the presence of the softer trines and sextiles between them all, speaks of resolution, and certainly transformation.
This alignment has presided over all the events under discussion in this Friday Bite.
FINALLY, ON SATURDAY, the other shoe dropped. In response to the Iranian missile attack earlier in the month, Israel struck back. It had taken more than three weeks to mull over its choices but finally it went for the Goldilocks option – not too much (no nuclear sites or oil facilities) and not too little, but somewhere in between. While the strike was enough to teach the Mullahs a lesson it was not enough to make them look weak so that they had to do it all over again.
It seems, for the time being at least, that the war in the region is not going to escalate.
ON WEDNESDAY, AS the rain in Spain continued and missiles went on dropping in Lebanon and Gaza, Britain’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered her first budget. The least said about its content, the better – only time will tell if it plunges the Kingdom into recession – however, under this rare alignment, maybe we should nurture some hope that it will prevent Great Britain from falling over a proverbial cliff and into economic oblivion.
IN GEORGIA, A country that borders Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Sunday’s election, as feared by a large number of its people, resulted in a win for the ruling, pro-Russia party, Georgia Dream. After a partial recount on Wednesday, the ruling party was deemed to have won. This result makes no sense, given that 80 percent of the people want to be part of the European Union. Only last November, thousands celebrated the European Union’s decision to accept the country as a candidate for membership. The pro-Western opposition continues to assert that the election was “stolen” and refuse to accept the result.
What happens in Georgia doesn’t stay in Georgia.
FOUR DAYS AND counting. Next Tuesday, America will go to the polls in what has been described as the most consequential election – for both America and the world – in US history. In simple terms, the American people will be making a choice between returning the nation to its “gilded” past or going forward and making America a country match-fit for tomorrow.
While no one knows what kind of president Kamala Harris will make, we all know what kind of president Donald Trump was. And it is clear, recollections may vary…
What has become clearer over recent weeks is just how much the sepia-tinted view of 1950’s America differs from the America of Project 2024, which lies in store should Donald Trump win the election. And, to his credit, the former president has made no secret of his plans to become an authoritarian leader with an extreme far-right agenda. Last Sunday’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden said everything there was to be said about life under a Trump administration.
Many compared the gathering to the Hitler rally held in the same stadium in 1939, a matter of months before World War II began. And, indeed, there was something quite sinister about the “enthusiasm” with which the hate and fear-filled messages served up from the podium, were greeted. Which is why I decided to look at the charts of both events to see if there were any echoes emanating from fascist Germany of 1939.
What I found was fascinating.
On 20 February, 1939, Neptune at 22 degrees of Virgo was rising, opposing the Moon at 19 degrees of Pisces.
On 26 October, 2024, Neptune had just risen at 27 degrees of Pisces and the Moon was at 14 degrees of Virgo.
At the Hitler rally, Jupiter was at 11 degrees of Pisces, conjunct the Moon.
At the Trump event, Saturn was at 13 degrees of Pisces opposing the Moon.
On 20 February, 1939, Saturn was to be found at 15 degrees of Aries.
On 26 October, 2024, the Ascendant was at 13 degrees of Aries.
At the 1939 event, Mars was 13 degrees of Sagittarius.
Last Sunday, Venus was at 12 degrees of Sagittarius.
Last but not least, on 20 February, 1939, Pluto was at 29 degrees 44’ of Cancer while on Sunday 26 October 2024, Pluto was at 29 degrees 42 minutes of Capricorn.
The United States natal Pluto is 27 degrees 33’.
I have rarely seen such echoes from one era to another, the most significant of which is the position of Pluto. Since the Plutos exactly oppose each other, there is more than a hint of issues returning to the table to be recycled or rejected.
The United States is emerging from its first Pluto return, and is still in the process of reinventing itself. And the forthcoming election is absolutely central to the kind of America that it will become. The extremes of the times, whether far-left or far-right, are in evidence worldwide. There seems to be no place for centrists. No place for leaders who seek to find the mid-way between opposing factions. Thus, in some ways, it seems that the cards are stacked against Kamala.
However, even though, according to most polls, the two presidential candidates are “neck and neck”, and the astrology, similarly close – both have equally strong Jupiter transits – reading the room, it would not surprise me at all to see an overwhelming vote of approval for Harris. (See my video: New Moon in Scorpio and my Friday Bite: 4 October.)
And I have maintained over the past four years that Trump will never return to the White House.
Given the recent remarks by Donald Trump at his rallies and on Truth Social, it seems the campaign to undermine the results of the election is well underway – already he is warning us that “Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught, at large scale levels, rarely seen before”. On today’s New York Times Daily, I learned that a campaign begun by Nevada businessman, Robert Beadles, called “The Precinct Strategy” has been gathering momentum for the past several years. The campaign seeks to undermine the certifying of elections at local level. On 9 July this year in Washoe, Nevada, a commission meeting to certify the recent elections there voted not to certify them. And it is not only happening in Washoe, Nevada. In at least twenty counties across a broad swathe of the United States, officials have voted not to certify the results of their local elections. Thus, setting a precedent for the presidential election of the fifth of November.
Given that the chart of the US election has a void-of-course Moon, I think we can almost certainly assume that the results will be tied up in legal wrangles for weeks thereafter. Unless, of course, Mr Trump is victorious.
I thought you might find my Astrolutely forecasts for the coming week, which I wrote some six weeks ago, amusing.
GEMINI (Donald Trump)
Did you lose something? Or are you feeling bewitched and bothered? No surprise if you are. In the aftermath of last week’s astrological tsunami, you won’t be the only one searching for answers and trying to find your bearings.
LIBRA (Kamala Harris)
It’s alright to be confused. Not only have we just come through an astrological storm but now Venus is angling Neptune sending wafts of mist over everything.
Four more days and counting.
***
Friday Bite: 11 October 2024
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all place their signatures on the nuclear age. The development of nuclear science began in the mid-to-late 1800s, just after the discovery of Neptune, and continued apace in the 1930s after the discovery of Pluto. Uranium was discovered in 1789, and named after the planet, which had been discovered seven years beforehand.
Uranium, Plutonium and Neptunium “sit” together on the periodic table (Neptunium coming between Uranium and Plutonium) and all three are capable of producing a nuclear explosion.
While most of us are familiar with Plutonium’s and Uranium’s role in nuclear devices, Neptunium not so much. It is usable in nuclear weapons, although no country has done so, and it is mainly known as a bi-product from nuclear reactors and Plutonium production. Nonetheless, it is part of this unholy trinity, so to speak.
Uranus, Pluto and Neptune tend to be in key positions at the time of nuclear events.
The outer planets take us to a new level in terms of knowledge and consciousness, and now, as they unite in this minor Grand Trine (a trine of three planets made up of two sextiles) or Small Talent Triangle, we can expect significant developments regarding all things nuclear. Already we’ve had Vladimir Putin threatening to “go nuclear” should any western nuclear power assist “aggression against Russia”, and then there is the constant threat posed by the fighting in Ukraine close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Friday Bite: 25 October 2024
Sticks and Stones…
Moldova – Georgia – Elon Musk – Trump
Sticks and stones may break my bones. But words will never hurt me. This old English rhyme came to mind as I ploughed through the endless litany of name-calling that has made this US election so markedly different from others. In this world of viral soundbites, words can deeply damage a candidate’s prospects, especially when they are served up in a salad of untruths and promoted by a gazillionaire who owns a social media platform.
Elon Musk is that gazillionaire who on Saturday pledged to give $1 million each day until the presidential election to a registered voter in key swing states who signs a petition confirming their support for the rights of free speech and to bear arms. Legally questionable and currently under investigation by the Justice Department so far there have been two lucky winners.
Just in case you’re interested in the astrological patterns that underpin the character and destiny of a man like Elon Musk, I have put his chart below.
Impressed? I suspect most of you will be surprised that neither Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune nor Pluto are on the angles. Perhaps the time of birth is wrong. The time that I have used comes from a biography by Walter Isaacson who states, “At 7:30 on the morning of June 28, 1971, Maye Musk gave birth to an eight-pound, eight-ounce boy with a very large head.”
The Jupiter-Neptune conjunction provides some evidence of a visionary genius and one who not only courts celebrity and notoriety but makes plenty of money. (Boris Johnson has a Jupiter-Neptune opposition and Donald Trump has a stellium involving Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter.) However, you really need a personal planet to connect to Jupiter and Neptune in order to manifest the unimaginable wealth or overweening myopia this combination can produce. His Moon is just squaring Saturn and Neptune. Just. That Saturn opposes Musk’s Jupiter-Neptune conjunction suggests his success is a karmic legacy, but since it is Saturn, there are limits to that success, and hubris a distinct possibility. We may have to wait until the summer of 2025 and Uranus’ conjunction to Saturn to see whether Mr Musk has overreached himself.
While his reasons for supporting Trump are almost certainly self-serving, his Venus at 19 degrees of Gemini is close to Trump’s Sun, which, in turn, opposes his Moon. And on 5 November, transiting Jupiter will be at 20 degrees of Gemini…
MOVING SWIFTLY ON, during the past seven days, sabres have been rattling. Ominously. On Sunday, the citizens of Moldova went to the polls to vote in a referendum to join the European Union. The pro-Europe camp won by a hair, which was something of a miracle given the hybrid warfare Russia had been engaged in in trying to influence the result.
Moldova acquired its independence from Russia on 27 August 1991, and it became a member of NATO on 2 March the following year. So, there is a case to be made for a chart based on either date. However, the above horoscope, which is set for Moldova’s independence resonates well with the country and it is certainly reflecting the current battle for its future.
There are many Moldovans who keenly feel their links to Mother Russia, and this deep connection can be seen in the 1991 chart through the Mercury, Venus, Jupiter triple conjunction between 24 and 26 Leo. (Russia’s Ascendant is 25 degrees of Leo.) Plus, Russia’s Moon is 3 degrees of Virgo (Moldova’s Sun). Uranus is currently squaring the stellium in Leo and sowing controversy and division while Neptune is conjoined to the Moon and opposing Mars resonating with the disinformation the nation is being subjected to and the possible erosion of its sovereignty. Pluto has been hovering over the nation’s Saturn for almost eighteen months, which is not only illustrative of the turmoil the country has been experiencing but its struggle to transform itself into a member of Europe.
Georgia is another country with links to Russia that are proving hard to break, and Georgia is holding parliamentary elections on Saturday (26 October). The election will pit a coalition of opposition and anti-Russian parties against an increasingly pro-Russian ruling party, Georgian Dream. Brussels put Georgia’s bid for entry into the European Union on hold in August after the government passed a “Russian law” cracking down on the freedom of speech.
Georgia’s chart also reveals its links to Mother Russia with Venus, the ruler of the fourth house of the homeland, at 25 degrees of Taurus, thus squaring Russia’s Ascendant. However, this is where the connections begin and end. With the Sun in Aries and an Aries Midheaven, Georgia is independent at heart. This nation does not want to be yoked to another, particularly one that curtails free speech, nor for that matter does a nation with the Moon in Aquarius.
On the day of the elections, the prevailing Mars-Pluto opposition will be flanking Georgia’s nodal axis, reinforcing what many citizens believe will be the most crucial vote in their lifetimes. The Sun will be squaring the natal Jupiter-Saturn opposition and Uranus will be conjunct Venus.
All the four opposition parties have to do is secure enough votes to surpass the 5 percent threshold, thereby collectively obtaining more support than the ruling Georgian Dream party. These four parties may each differ in their ethos, but all are broadly pro-western. And a victory for the opposition would halt the slow retreat toward authoritarian Russia.
If Moldova can do it, so can Georgia.
STILL IN RUSSIA, South Korean intelligence officials have reported that 1,500 North Korean special forces have been sent to Russia for training in order to be deployed in the war in Ukraine. 10,000 more are expected to arrive before December. Russia and North Korea have denied any troop movements have taken place, which doesn’t actually mean there are no North Korean soldiers in Russia.
While this development ratchets up the potential for an escalation of the war in Ukraine, with Neptune and Saturn set to conjoin in the coming months, an astrological event that tends to preside over major political and societal change in Russia, I don’t think we need to start wringing our hands just yet.
FINALLY TO THE United States. Sticks and stones… So, on Tuesday, the New York Times published excerpts from interviews with John Kelly, US Marine Corps general and former Chief of Staff to Donald Trump, in which he confirmed on tape that the former president “fitted the general definition of a fascist”. Kamela Harris repeated the term at a town hall meeting on Wednesday. Actually, she went further, calling Trump “increasingly unhinged and unstable”. The former president responded via Truth Social and X saying “she [Kamala] is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind”.
Then, on Thursday, 233 mental health specialists warned that Trump “appears to be showing signs of cognitive decline and that his “malignant narcissism” makes him “grossly unfit for leadership”.
Just how much any of this will actually affect the outcome of the election is debatable. While you would think calling a presidential candidate a “fascist” and “increasingly unhinged” would make people think twice about voting him in again – arguably, his failure to acknowledge the pandemic that Covid was, lead to 40% more deaths of American citizens. But it seems a good part of the country, if not half the United States, feels he can exact the social revenge they require because they have been disenfranchised and ignored. And for that, they will not hear a word against him.
Which brings me to the theme that sort of knits this Friday Bite together.
Fascism. A word that is being liberally bandied about these days, and justifiably, since so many parts of the world are drifting, if not marching, toward totalitarian governments, as, indeed they did in the 1930’s.
One of the potential aspects of a new Age of Aquarius is the rise of totalitarian governments and a new world order. And although many people talk of a “new energy” and a new world in which the people have the power, the way the world is heading at the moment is not in that direction. Democracy is in trouble.
Fascism evolved in the 1930’s. It was the “brainchild” of Italy’s leader Benito Mussolini and enthusiastically embraced by Hitler and Stalin. Mussolini had become disillusioned with democracy and formulated the theory that some men were better than others and those few must lead. Only in that way, he figured, could a nation become strong and successful. To this end, the people were to be organized and all opposition ruthlessly suppressed. Opponents were to be demonized and considered the enemy. The economy was to be directed so that business and politicians would work together. And a select group of leaders would elevate a single man who would become an all-powerful dictator.
Sound familiar?
“These leaders believed that their new system would reclaim a glorious past with the ideology of the future, welding pure men into a military and social machine that moved all as one, while pure women supported society as mothers. They set out to eliminate those who didn’t fit their model and to destroy the messy, inefficient democracy that stood in their way.” Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American
We all know what happened.