Desperately struggling like a bug caught in a spider’s web, the Bush administration has been wriggling for the past two months to extricate itself from its own web of deceit. In the most recent chapter of this sordid tale of chronic deception, blame for the infamous 16 misleading words has been projected far and wide so that the rather unconvincing mea culpas would not besmirch the White House. After weeks of finger-pointing, Mr. Bush, in a recent press conference, finally admitted that he is actually responsible for what comes out of his mouth. Nonetheless, the slow erosion of his pristine image continues its relentless march onward, and he will never return to Oz.
The almost continuous impact of Saturn transits throughout June and most of July 2003 (see The Tide has Turned), coupled with the ongoing Uranus station quincunx the US Midheaven during the same period, created an atmosphere of daily upsets, revelations, and insurmountable difficulty for the Bush administration. By late July, however, the regime shifted to a much more aggressive stance, hoping to distract the public from the consequences of its ill-conceived policies. The Mars station opposite Bush’s progressed Sun/natal Mars conjunction, as well as square the US Uranus, and the Uranus transit square Inaugural Jupiter are all contributors to this shift from defense to offense.
The intensified Mars/Jupiter energy may be seen in the murder of Saddam’s two sons and the stepped-up hunt for the former dictator himself. We have also heard in the past week a revving up of the administration’s rhetoric. Cheney, Wolfowitz and even Bush are once again proclaiming what a dangerous threat Saddam was to the world, as well as reasserting his supposed ties to Al Qaeda, in their attempts to justify the recent assault on Iraq. In essence, they are mounting a public relations war for their credibility, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
With Saturn’s energy somewhat dimmed until mid-September, the extreme criticism recently directed at the Bush administration may be put on the back burner to simmer for a while. We should not forget, however, that a whole slew of issues continues to seethe, any one of which could ignite into a conflagration if the heat is turned up high enough. If the insurgency in Iraq escalates, the questions surrounding Bush’s manipulative and dishonest case for war will become deafening. As the investigation into the intelligence failure behind 9/11 returns to the front pages with the recently published Congressional report, Bush’s attempts to thwart it and cover-up any White House involvement becomes more apparent, and a few leaks could turn into a devastating flood. The 28 pages omitted from public view regarding the Saudi participation in 9/11 are another potential time bomb. As the Saudis get angrier and angrier over Bush’s refusal to release the pages from their classified status, the danger of a serious and unprecedented conflict with the Saudi government looms and, with it, the potential for a major destabilization of the global economy. The Saudis and their 25% share of the world’s oil have been a dependable source of energy stability for decades.
For the next couple of months, the Bush administration will be moving forward with both barrels blasting. As of July 30, Mars is retrograde and heading once again for its exact opposition to Bush’s natal Mars/progressed Sun conjunction, as well as its square to the US Uranus. These aspects are highlighted during the first 11 days of August and triggered strongly by transits of the Sun, Mercury and Venus during that period. We can expect Bush to be quite forceful and perhaps unleash some strong military activity in Iraq in pursuit of Saddam. Liberia also continues to be a possibility.
Further aggression, irritability, anger and confrontation are suggested by several aspects in the Inaugural chart that carry us into mid-October. Inaugural tertiary progressed Mercury is square to natal Mars (7/30 to 9/20). Converse progressed Inaugural Moon is conjunct Mars (8/16 to 9/16). Inaugural tertiary progressed Jupiter is square tertiary progressed Sun at 2Gemini22 (7/25 to 8/28). Inaugural tertiary progressed Sun is square to tertiary progressed Mars at 3 to 4 Pisces (8/14 to 10/16). And Mr. Bush’s tertiary progressed Sun is square to tertiary progressed Mars from 29Taurus40 to 1Gemini46 (7/19 to 9/19). With Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus all crossing the very early degrees of either Pisces or Virgo during this period, these three powerful planets will trigger many of the above-mentioned progressions.
A particularly inflammable period will be the Jupiter/Uranus opposition at the end of August and the very beginning of September. This opposition falls directly square Mr. Bush’s tertiary progressed Sun (1Gemini) square tertiary progressed Mars (1 Virgo). It is at precisely this time that transiting Jupiter (1 Virgo) squares Inaugural Jupiter (1 Gemini) and quincunxes Inaugural Sun (1 Aquarius). The very tight Jupiter/Sun trine in the Inaugural chart is indicative of the many successes Bush has been able to muster during his presidency. The strong action on that Inaugural trine in the waning days of August suggests the possibility of a military victory of some sort during that period. The capture of Saddam is a distinct possibility around that time.
Coincidentally, a period of explosive change begins for Iraq (8/23/21, 6 AM, Baghdad) during the first week of September and continues through mid-December. The feeling is one of liberation and an aggressive push for freedom. The status quo is likely to be overturned, perhaps several times, during that three-month period. Uranus, the planet of rebellion, revolution, and self-determination will make a station in opposition to the Iraqi Sun/Mercury conjunction. The Sun rules the 12th house of secret enemies, and these will be strengthened and agitated during this period. Mercury rules both the MC and the Ascendant, suggesting that the disruptive events will impact the entire country: the people as well as the nation’s standing in the world.
The juxtaposition of Uranian events in Iraq’s chart with Saturn’s first contact with the US Sun in late September and October, which continues its influence through early June 2004, suggests that these events in Iraq could create big problems for George Bush. It may be, as Robert Fisk suggested in a recent article, that once the threat of Saddam’s potential return is removed, the Iraqis will turn their full attention to ousting the Americans. Certainly, the US will be undergoing significant difficulties during this time, and the general sense of stuckness, burden, and sorrow will weigh directly on the Commander in Chief (US Sun). This time of adversity is also likely to directly impact the American public in some way due to the Saturn station quincunx the US Sagittarius rising Ascendant from mid-September through mid-November 2003.
Another set of aspects that suggests increasing difficulties for the administration from September through November may be found in the Inaugural chart. The natal Inaugural Moon/Pluto conjunction is square to natal Venus, and describes the underlying extreme and often dark emotions within the administration. Pluto in hard aspect to the feminine energies here indicates the proclivity for secrecy, revenge, and holding grudges. The general over-intensity of emotions suggested by these aspects also points to a fanatical outlook, distrust, and a heightened sense of threat. Transiting Pluto has been intensifying these traits in the administration since December 2002 and will continue to do so through November 2003. The first pass of Pluto square to natal Venus brought the imbroglio with Trent Lott in December 2002. The first conjunction of Pluto with natal Moon brought the initial North Korean crisis and the rebellion of Germany and France against Bush’s policies, as well as the stalemate at the UN, in January 2003. The recent retrograde crossing of Pluto square Inaugural Venus in June and July brought the extraordinary outcry from the usually somnolent media and Congress over the exaggerated and bogus evidence used to push the country to war in Iraq.
Though Pluto currently remains within orb of the square to Venus and is, therefore, still active, there is a bit of a hiatus now until Pluto goes direct on August 28. Then from August 28 through October 13, Pluto will again move to square Inaugural Venus, heightening the administration’s emotions of distrust, resentment, and sense of threat, and working in synch with the concurrent Saturn energies to cause a hornet’s nest worth of trouble for the Bush administration. The Pluto aspect to Venus is particularly important because Venus is the ruler of the Taurus Ascendant and, hence, ruler of the chart. This year-long transit therefore also suggests a slow but unrelenting transformation of how the administration’s public persona is perceived and understood. Pluto tends to bring forth hidden and dark secrets by intensifying their energies until they bubble up to the surface where they can be cleansed in the light of day.
The final phase of this potent set of transits comes when Pluto crosses the Inaugural Moon from October 24 through the end of November 2003. By the end of 2003, after a year of Pluto’s force aimed at both Inaugural Venus and Moon, it seems likely that much that has been obscured and concealed will be unmasked, transforming the administration’s image and impact in the process.
In sum, after a period of intensified aggression and assertiveness by the administration in late July and August, the events of September through December 2003 are likely to bring an increasing whirlwind of difficulties and upsets for Mr. Bush. The situation will grow into an ever-burgeoning crisis through at least November 2003. Any one of several dangerously percolating issues could explode during this time. As Bush goes around blithely collecting obscene amounts of money while the summer unemployment lines lengthen and the local property taxes rise, the planetary energies are gathering and getting ready to pounce on the Emperor’s House of Cards.
