The New Year floats into existence on a sea of tears. The tsunami disaster that has engulfed Southeastern Asia has grasped us all in its grisly tentacles. And perhaps that was its purpose, rather than some vengeful manifestation of divine wrath for a swath of supposed sinners. For a brief moment, we have awakened to the deeper truth of our united human family. Our petty disagreements have faded into the background, momentarily replaced by our collective effort to bring aid and comfort to the suffering of our brothers and sisters half a world away. This fleeting feeling is one we need to steadfastly remember and one that we all too often forget.
More commonly, nascent attempts at global cooperation to resolve the world’s most pressing problems clash with a regressive narcissistic nationalism that sees international geopolitics as a Darwinistic struggle for the survival of the fittest. Witness the examples of the International Court and the Kyoto Treaty in which the United States’ refusal to participate puts short-term national gain over long-term collective responsibility and benefit. At our peril, we ignore the handwriting on the wall, especially with regard to our choice of energy sources. The air we breathe causes an ever-increasing rate of asthma amongst our citizens; scientists warn of devastation related to global warning if we do not reduce our use of fossil fuels; we are fighting an unwinnable war against an indigenous and growing insurgency in our effort to control a waning resource upon which our civilization depends. And yet, we do not hear the trumpets blaring, calling us to awaken from our slumber.
Now the tsunami tragedy has pricked a deeply buried fear that a fickle and unpredictable Mother Nature could strike anywhere at any time. Will it also awaken a resolve to tackle global warming before it tackles us? Will we aggressively move toward alternative fuel sources or continue to unwillingly limp in that direction? Will we rejoin the global community with humility and a spirit of cooperation or cling to our fading and isolated superpower status? Such thoughts give a 21st Century, globalized meaning to Ben Franklin’s famous words: We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately. Franklin 2.0.
At the moment, we have George Bush captaining our ship with his extraordinary lack of vision and his breathtaking inability to grasp the potential for devastation and chaos that stem from his myopic policies – environmental, military, and economic. The entire thrust of his Iraq war misadventure is a giant regressive step away from the struggling-to-evolve human consciousness that understands the need for collective, peaceful cooperation and shared goals. This war was initiated against the will of a large majority of the world’s citizens and governments. Its unstated aim was to establish the United States as an unopposable global hegemon with a firm military presence in the Middle East, not incidentally the source of most of the world’s oil. And it has incited anger and hatred in the Muslim world, further engendering feelings of disunity and separation rather than cooperation. It is hard to imagine a policy more suited to sabotaging the world’s early attempts at international cooperation and enlightened policy.
As discussed on this site in articles written at the outset of the Second Gulf War, the chart for this conflict suggests an inability to reach the primary goals set by the US government and a likelihood of enormous and irresolvable resistance and power struggle. The Sun in the 29th degree of Pisces, a void-of-course position, implies that the original goals will be left dangling and unfinished, superceded by an entirely new set of circumstances and demands which would become increasingly apparent as the Sun progressed into Aries (early 2004). The position of Pluto on the MC opposite Saturn on the IC, both square to the Sun (goals), suggests an ongoing conflict between an immense and controlling power (Pluto/MC) and a resistant, conservative, indigenous force (Saturn/IC). This ongoing struggle thwarts the ability of the war’s goals (Sun) to be manifested, due to the Sun/Pluto/Saturn T-square.
It is likely that we will see the growing insurgency in Iraq, now estimated by some as roughly 200,000 strong, significantly more than the current 150,000 US troops, continue to wax in power as the progressed MC of the War chart moves to an exact opposition of natal Saturn and then progressed Saturn, through mid-May 2005. Furthermore, through early November 2005, transiting Pluto will also be opposite natal war chart Saturn, stimulating the MC-opposite-Saturn progression to be active for a further six months and giving continuing strength to the forces that frustrate and repel the US military power and its goals. Thus, the power struggle between American forces and the strong resistance on the ground is likely to rage until at least mid-November 2005. We can expect this to be especially strong in late March and early April 2005 when progressed War chart Moon quincunxes War chart Saturn, and in June, September, October, and early November 2005 when transiting Pluto opposes War chart Saturn.
In addition, planetary transits to the birth chart for Iraq also shed some light on this volatile conflict. The war began with the overthrow of the Iraqi government and the initial invasion as Uranus opposed the Iraqi Sun (29 Leo) and then squared the Iraqi MC (2 Gemini) in 2003. Saddam was finally captured when Uranus, the planet of sudden, irreversible change and upset, opposed the Iraqi Sun, symbolizing the ruler, for the final time in December 2003. As Uranus then moved to oppose the Iraqi Ascendant (4 Virgo) in 2004, the situation became increasingly unstable and the feeling of rebellion and insurgency (characteristics of Uranus) increased. Currently, Uranus is finishing its last crossing opposite the Ascendant, waxing through January 22, 2005. Transits of this planet to the angles of a chart normally bring tremendous disruption, upheaval, and unexpected dislocation. Iraq is especially sensitive to these transits with natal Uranus (8 Pisces) conjunct the Descendant.
Beginning in March 2005 and continuing through January 2006, Iraq will experience its Uranus return, when Uranus comes back to its natal place (8 Pisces) in the birth chart. In the United States, the first Uranus return in 1861 brought rebellion among the slave-holding states and their secession from the Union. In much the same way, the Iraqi Uranus return is likely to bring some kind of insistence on freedom and independence from the people. Whether this means a civil war fomented by stirrings for independence from the minority Sunni and/or Kurdish populations or whether it means the elected government insists on independence from the residing American troops is yet to be seen. But there will be a strong Iraqi spirit insisting on freedom from perceived oppression and restriction, and high drama is likely to continue from March 2005 through January 2006 in this regard.
In the US chart we find that from January through mid-February 2005 military activity is highlighted due to the Jupiter station that will be conjunct US progressed Mars (18 Libra), itself quincunx US progressed Midheaven (18 Taurus). Both the transit and the year-long progression will wane after February, suggesting the possibility of a decrease in US military activity by late winter. Perhaps the US military will assume a lower profile within a few weeks after the January 30 election, although the War chart intimates several months of a continued power struggle nonetheless.
With Iraq acting like a festering sore, irresolvable and extremely painful, it seems likely that the administration will be increasingly branded with this calamitous failure during 2005. The coming Inaugural chart Midheaven/Chiron conjunction will wax in strength for several months (likely through September 2005) due to the progression of the Midheaven, suggesting some kind of wound that will alter the course of the administration and perhaps cripple it in some way for the duration of the term. But, while Chiron may bring a grievous and agonizing situation to the administration, it may also offer the possibility of compensatory action that forces a new phase of tremendous growth. It remains to be seen how George Bush, known for his obsessive inability to change course, will handle this energy.
At the moment, many of the stories swirling around Washington relate to the administration’s willingness to deceive the public, its lack of connection to reality, and its obliviousness to its impact on others. The Armstrong Williams payoff, the bogus Social Security crisis, and the opulent Inaugural plans that simultaneously force District of Columbia residents, who don’t even have a vote in Congress, to pay for the event’s security are all examples of a deceptive and arrogant administration disconnected and disinterested in the needs of its citizens. There has even been an actual description in the media of Bush’s refusal to listen to any bad news whatsoever. In all of these stories, we see the effect of Neptune squaring the Inaugural chart Ascendant for the entire month of January, bringing with it an administration out of touch with reality and all too willing to obscure and deceive. The Neptune/Ascendant square will be exact in the 2005 Inaugural chart that goes into effect on January 20, indicating that this deceptive, shifty, disconnected tendency will permeate the Bush administration’s next four years.
Thus, it seems we have a Chief Executive hardly able or willing to perceive reality as it is and almost incapable of responding to it in an appropriate way. From Social Security to the War in Iraq to tax policy, there is not a shred of evidence that George Bush truly understands or even cares about the impact of his schemes on Americans in the everyday world. Worse yet, his policies are truly regressive in that they attempt to move us backwards in time, away from the nascent enlightened thinking of the late 20th and 21st Centuries, away from the concerted efforts of the United Nations, away from global treaties on arms control and the reduction of fossil fuels, away from the establishment of world-wide justice, but towards war and the triumphal entrenchment of American power.
Meanwhile, the evolution of human consciousness stands at the threshold of a new era. Within the next century and a half or so, the Sun at the time of the Spring Equinox will move from the constellation of Pisces to the constellation of Aquarius, and we will enter what is known as the Aquarian Age. Every 2160 years, the Equinoctial Sun advances through another constellation, indicating the ever-forward movement of human understanding. Already, there are glimmerings of what is to come as we approach Aquarius, a sign that denotes a true equality among humankind and a communal cooperation in the pursuit of goals.
It may be that the great devastation of the Christmas Tsunami was the Earth’s way of pulling us forward another notch, by waking us up to our deeper connections rather than our differences. And just as the tsunami victims and their families, at immeasurable cost, have given us a gift of remembrance of our true destiny, perhaps the tragic mess that is Bush’s Iraqi misadventure may also hold a hidden gift within its bloodshed and sorrow. In fact, it may prove a success by its very failure, pulling us back from the brink of a path of conquest and a plundering hegemony. When a child burns his fingers, he learns not to play with matches. It is far better than burning down the house.
