Friday Bite 1 May 2026

NACHO

“The only place Americans belong in the Persian Gulf is at the bottom of its waters. Iran will protect [its] nuclear capability. Iran will keep Hormuz.” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, 30 April

“We need the ballroom … Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with [sic] its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!” Donald Trump, Truth Social, 26 April.

‘Long before Americans had a nation or a constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts: moral courage, and it came from a small but mighty kingdom from across the sea. For nearly two centuries before the revolution, this land was settled and forged by men, women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain’s distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride, and that’s what it is: glory, destiny, and pride.’ Donald Trump, 28 April.

NACHO IS AN acronym formed by the phrase: Not A Chance Hormuz Opens. A statement issued on Thursday by Iran’s supreme leader made clear that the United States has no place in the future of the Persian Gulf and that Iran is intending to implement “new legal frameworks and management of the Strait of Hormuz”.

Thus ended the meagre hope that the deadlock over the international waterway would soon be over.

In last week’s Friday Bite, I referred to today’s full moon, which like all full moons inspires closure and completion, and speculated that since it falls on Iran’s MC-IC axis, it might signal the end of the war or at least the end of Iran’s ability to hold out, given the drastic state of its economy and infrastructure, but it seems not only is it the end of Donald Trump’s “nice guy” but Iran is ramping up its hold on the Strait and preparing for fresh action by the United States.

Today should be the last day of the war in Iran. The Trump administration had sixty days from the start of Operation Epic Fury to prosecute its “foreign offensive” without seeking the approval of Congress. The administration has been arguing that the president did not start a war but rather undertook “combat operations” and Trump has been referring to the conflict as a “special military operation”. (Why does that sound familiar…) This week found Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, claiming that the sixty-day clock is paused because of the ceasefire. There is also the possibility that the president will use a legal loophole allowing him a thirty-day extension.

I think we can be certain that with or without legal loopholes and the approval of Congress, this war will go on if Donald Trump so chooses. And, as I mentioned last week, the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to almost all international traffic, the more devastating the consequences for the rest of the world. We in the west are only just beginning to feel the cost in terms of food and oil prices: some developing nations face famine.

And there will be payback. Already Iranian Islamist groups are claiming responsibility for attacks on Jewish communities across Britain – on Wednesday a Somali-born British citizen who had previously been referred to the government’s counter-extremism programme stabbed two Jewish men in broad daylight – and today the government raised its terror-threat level to severe.

It’s going to be a difficult summer.

IN MY SATURDAY Hello, I mentioned that given the severe astrological volatility of the time, we were lucky not to have had some seismic developments of the real and metaphorical variety. I spoke too soon. Hours later a man armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives and daggers, attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner taking place at the Washington Hilton. We later learned that Cole Tomas Allen, a graduate from Caltech and a respected teacher, had sent an email to family and friends just before he embarked on his mission explaining his reasons for targeting the president and top administration officials. He has since been charged with the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Here is a picture of that moment.

You couldn’t have designed a more appropriate horoscope for an assassination. Scorpio rises with Pluto, the ruler, precisely squaring the Sun. The Moon, conjunct the Midheaven and on the anaretic degree (29 degrees of Leo), is precisely squaring Uranus. Explosive. Unexpected. Profoundly disturbing. Frankly, it’s a miracle no one was killed. It was certainly quite the miracle for Donald Trump, given that the Moon was conjunct his Ascendant (and Mars) and squaring Uranus, some five degrees away from his Midheaven. By my calculations, that must be life number eight!

Of course, no sooner had the event taken place than social media was awash with conspiracy theories, considerably boosted by recent concerns over the genuineness of the Butler assassination attempt. We shall never know, of course, and even if it does smell fishy, I also know from long experience that truth is invariably stranger than fiction.

INTO THIS FEBRILE atmosphere, some thirty-six hours later, landed King Charles and wife, Camilla. Concerns over this royal trip to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of America’s independence, had been rife for months. Was it seemly for the King to play kissing-cousins with Donald Trump when the president was being loudly disparaging about prime minister Keir, calling him “no Winston Churchill”, and accusing the United Kingdom of coming late to the party? “We don’t need people that join us after we’ve won the war…”. As for the ‘special relationship’, “it’s not good, not good at all.”

Never underestimate Charles Mountbatten Windsor. Over the three-day visit to the United States, the King gave a masterclass in dignity and diplomacy. His speech to Congress was an unqualified success – it went on far longer than scheduled, entirely due to the twelve standing ovations he received. He noted, “executive power should be subject to checks and balances” and that “with the spirit of 1776 in our mind, we can perhaps agree that we do not always agree, but two nations when in agreement can do great things, not just for the benefit of our peoples but all peoples”. And in a playful toast at the white tie dinner later that night, he joked about America’s colonial past and said, “if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French.”

It’s always easier to examine a chart once an event is over, even so, Venus on the Midheaven, albeit conjoined to Uranus, was a portent of a love-in. Which indeed it was. There was plenty of controversy to account for Uranus but it was finessed and the spirit of kinship and Kingship was on display. I was a little concerned about the connection to Charles’s natal Saturn – at five degrees Virgo, it was squared by Venus and the Midheaven and conjunct the Ascendant – but although the trip may have been a duty and a responsibility that he was not looking forward to, he accomplished it with great aplomb. Mars at fourteen degrees of Aries was conjunct his Midheaven, which pointed to a potential attack on his position but instead fired him up and inspired a winning performance.

Pluto is also currently floating around Charles’ descendant, which at best helps reinvigorate relationships that have lost their lustre but can also inspire profound and painful relationship developments. Plus, Pluto on any angle, always points to a period in which life and death issues of a literal or figurative are in play. The King is living with terminal cancer but to all intents and purposes it seems as though he is living life to the full and living up to his role as King. This trip may turn out to be a crowning glory. 

JUST NOW IT is reported that Iran has sent its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States to Pakistani mediators.  Is there still a chance that today’s full moon will mark the end of the stalemate?

Let’s keep hope alive.

Saturday 25 April 2026

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Friday Bite 24 April 2026

Deadlock

“We’re close to a deal with Iran … that’ll give us free oil, free Hormuz Strait… everything will be nice… and I think the oil price will come down to lower than it was before.” Donald Trump, 17 April

“Castles in the air…The camel dreams of cottonseed, sometimes gulping it down, sometimes eating it grain by grain.” Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, 18 April

IT HAS BEEN three months since the Sun conjoined Pluto and kicked off the most turbulent passage for the globe since the end of World War II. On 19 January, as leaders gathered for the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, President Trump was threatening to take control of Greenland, in the process endangering the NATO alliance. There were genuine fears that member countries were going to have to go to war with one of their own – an alliance that had kept peace in the west for seventy-five years. In the event, Trump backed down, but the incident marked the end of the trust that had existed between western nations and the United States since the 1940s. President Macron warned of a “shift towards a world without rules” while Canada’s premier, Mark Carney spoke of “the old order never coming back”.

Davos was a watershed moment.

Here is a picture of that moment.

As you can see, all the personal planets are clustered together within a five-degree span. Venus is conjunct Pluto with the Sun, Mercury and Mars to follow shortly thereafter. Over the past twelve weeks that cluster has moved steadily forward through Aquarius, Pisces and Aries conjoining Saturn and Neptune and squaring Uranus along the way. On 28 February, some eleven days after a solar eclipse in Aquarius and as Mars squared Uranus, the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

The aforementioned cluster remains but now occupies a thirty-two-degree span. As the war began Mars conjoined the IC (America’s natal Moon) and squared Uranus in the area of partnerships and the “house of open enemies”. Push had indeed come to shove.

At that very moment, the world – the entire world – was plunged into the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. It might not seem that way at the moment. The cost of living may be rising and the price of oil, gas, diesel and petrol rising, but so too are the markets rising and only a few pundits are talking about potential food and industrial shortages, flight cancellations and power cuts; barely anyone is talking about what the lack of helium and ammonia could do to the microchip industry or the countries that could descend into famine in a matter of months due to the lack of fertilizer for crops.

So here we are three months on from the start of this impressive line-up of planets, now occupying roughly 30 degrees of the zodiac. (I mention this because to my mind it is the cluster of planets that is the prime-mover and the signature upon these unprecedented events; the signs it occupies are of secondary significance.) In the span of time from the start of Operation Epic Fury to now, the US military has obliterated Iran’s navy, air force and much of its infrastructure; two tiers of its leadership are gone, including one Supreme Leader while another lies gravely ill, and its economy is in the Hadal Zone. More than 3000 Iranians are dead – 43,000 if you count those killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. While in Lebanon, 2454 are dead, 7658 wounded and hundreds of thousands are homeless.

So why hasn’t America won the war?

If I knew about the risk to the world posed by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Trump and the administration most certainly did. It was in Iran’s gift to close the Strait, which it did on 2 March, hours before a total lunar eclipse in Virgo. Since then, the waterway was briefly reopened on 17 April (New Moon in Aries: Mercury conjunct Neptune), but has remained closed since 18 April. In the meantime, on 13 April (Mars conjunct Neptune) the United States launched a counter-blockade of the Strait. Now, all traffic in both the Strait and the Gulf is at a standstill.

A fragile cease-fire was agreed on 8 April, but after a set of peace talks hosted by Pakistan (12 April: Mars conjunct Neptune) ended in failure, the prospects for another have proved elusive.

On Tuesday, the US president extended the cease-fire deadline to this coming Sunday and then withdrew it completely. And today, Pete Hegseth, Secretary of war told us in a briefing at the Pentagon that America has “all the time in the world” and it is in Iran’s interests to come to the table.  Hegseth added that the United States did not need the Strait of Hormuz because it has its own abundant supply of oil. What Hegseth did not mention was that the administration has only until 1 May to continue its war in Iran.

There is a legislative challenge facing Trump in that a foreign offensive can only be maintained for sixty days without the approval of Congress. Which brings us to the first of May and the full moon in Scorpio.

As I put together this Friday Bite, Venus has just conjoined Uranus, the Sun is about to square Pluto and Uranus enter Gemini. There is a make-or-break quality to these influences, but if we go back to January and the Sun-Pluto conjunction, Trump backed down from his threat to take Greenland, so he may well have no option other than to make a deal with Iran sooner than later. Maybe Congress would approve the continuation of the war, but with 66 percent of America against it, such a prospect is by no means a slam dunk.

If we’re looking for an astrological reason why Operation Epic Fury was not the piece of cake the administration believed it to be, it lies in the position of the Moon at the start of the war. At 27 degrees Cancer 54ʹ, the Moon does not form an applying major aspect to any planet or point, therefore it is void of course and its intention will not be fulfilled. Plus, 27 degrees of Cancer is the United States’ Pluto; the inference being that the war will affect America at root level and transform the country’s standing in the world. What is also interesting is that the Trump administration continues to maintain that the goal of the war is to deny Iran any means of developing nuclear weapons, and if there is one planet synonymous with nuclear power, it is Pluto.

The full moon of the first of May cuts across Iran’s MC-IC axis, and since all full moons end chapters, this might just be the sign of the end of this unadvised war. I sincerely hope so because the longer it continues, the greater the pickle we’ll be in by the summer.