The Transformation of America & the 21st Century Crusade
by Robert P. Blaschke
After being deeply and violently penetrated by terrorists on 11 September 2001 with Pluto conjunct its Ascendant (Sibly Chart; 4 July 1776; 5:10 PM LMT; Philadelphia, PA), the United States has now undergone a radical transformation in foreign policy, homeland security and the assertion of its power throughout the world in the war on terrorism. With the transit of Uranus over the USA progressed Sun and national Moon occurring during 2002-3, the progressed retrograde stations of Saturn and Mars (1996-2006) for the first time in our nation's history, and a new Crusade against an Islamic Holy War on Judeo-Christian culture that can be traced to the once in 680-year Saturn-Uranus-Neptune triple conjunction of 1989, America has been shaken to its core and is now fighting back.
*** President Bush Saturn Conjunct Saddam Hussein Pluto ***
The whole world is watching and waiting to see when the US military will go into Iraq and accomplish a regime change. Who is Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937; 3:35 AM BGT; Tikrit, Iraq; Rodden classification XX - date in question; this reported birth time from Ashutosh Ojha in the AFA Bulletin 5/91), and why does the present US administration believe that he must be killed before he can use weapons of mass destruction again against other countries in the Middle East, such as Israel, Iran, the Saudis or Turkey? Or, worse yet, put them into the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists who would then attack America or Israel. Is there an astrological basis for this policy?
To be sure, our country helped to arm and finance him in the Iraq war with Iran, taking sides as we did because of the Iran hostage crisis during 1979-1980. But, after the Saturn-Uranus conjunction of 1988 landed exactly on his MC, and since the invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War in 1990-1, he has become more and more of a destabilizing threat to US interests in the region.
Picture a Jack Nicholson horror-film character running a country, armed with biological and chemical weapons, 3 billion dollars a year in oil revenues, and you can begin to see the scope of the problem. These two men are time twins, the actor being born five-six days earlier, both with a defiant Sun-Uranus conjunction in Taurus.
Possessing the rare combination of both Venus and Mars natally retrograde, which puts him into illustrious company with Lizzie Borden and Cyrano de Bergerac, his Venus is also in detriment in Aries. With a natal Jupiter-Pluto opposition on the USA progressed Pluto, and a Saturn in its fall at the powerful cardinal ingress degree of 0 Aries, he has proven to be a threatening menace to the world.
From The Economist, 3rd-9th August issue, page 9:
'The danger Mr Hussein poses cannot be overstated. He is no tinpot despot, singled out for arbitrary American punishment. Nor is Iraq a banana republic. With the possible exception of North Korea, but perhaps not even then, Mr Hussein is the world's most monstrous dictator, who by the promiscuous use of violence has seized unfettered control of a technologically advanced country with vast oil reserves. He has murdered all his political opponents, sometimes squeezing the trigger in person. He has subdued his Kurdish minority by razing their villages and spraying them with poison gas. In 1979 he invaded Iran, thus setting off an eight-year war that squandered more than one million lives. In 1990 he invaded and annexed Kuwait, pronouncing it his '19th province'. When an American-led coalition started to push him out, and though knowing Israel to be a nuclear power, he fired ballistic missiles into Tel Aviv, in the hope of provoking a general Arab-Israeli conflagration. Next time you hear someone ask why, in a world full of bad men, it is Mr Hussein who is being picked on, please bear all of the above in mind. He may very well be the worst.
'And yet it is not simply in his record of aggression, cruelty and recklessness that the peril to the wider world resides. If that were all the story, the danger might be easily contained. The unique danger in Iraq is that this country's advanced technology and potential oil wealth could very soon give this aggressive, cruel and reckless man an atomic bomb.'
Our president, George W. Bush (6 July 1946; 7:26 AM; New Haven CT; Rodden classification: AA - from BC), has his natal Saturn at 26 Cancer 30, conjunct Saddam's natal Pluto within 4 minutes of arc. The angular separation of Bush's natal Sun and Mars, which would speak to his usage of military force, is 304 degrees and 28 minutes. Using my Sabian Aspect Orb technique, this corresponds to the 5th degree of Aquarius, the Sabian Symbol being 'In the land of shades a grave council of the ancestors of a man of world importance has been called to guide him' (Lecture Lessons; 1931). This informs us as to why Bush, and not Gore, was selected by the guiding spiritual forces of humanity's progress on Earth to be our leader during this extremely perilous time for the planet.
The implication is that, on the inner planes, the spirits of Bush's ancestral forebears are providing counsel to him as he goes forward in his presidency. With his Saturn conjunct Saddam's Pluto, and with Saturn opposite Pluto in the heavens at this time in history, he has to stop him from using the destructive and evil weapons that he has developed. It is for the good of the planet.
The Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action being taken against rogue nations which develop weapons of mass destruction also implies that some countries on Earth can be trusted to use restraint with destructive military arsenals in their possession, such as the existing nuclear powers, while others cannot, such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
Transit Saturn stationed retrograde at 29 Gemini 05 on October 11th, forming a stationary conjunction to Saddam's IC, within a one degree orb from 26 August 2002 through 27 November 2002. It may be that the CIA will recruit a disgruntled family member to kill him, avoiding the necessity of sending in 100,000 ground troops to engage in house-to-house fighting on the streets of Baghdad. It is a known fact that Saddam has executed family members to consolidate power and control.
Saddam's progressed Ascendant is now conjunct President Bush's natal North Node at 20 Gemini, and he also had the transit South Node conjoin his natal North Node (a nodal opposition) on August 15th. Pluto stationed direct at 14 Sagittarius 54 on August 25th, conjunct Saddam's progressed North Node within 2 minutes of arc. His dreaded day of reckoning is drawing ever nearer.
*** Jupiter Station of 4 December 2002 @ 18 Leo ***
If the Sun-Mars conjunction at 18 Leo on August 10th was not enough to make you wonder if the Grand Cross Solar Eclipse of August 1999 still qualifies as a 'triggerable sensitive degree', then one need only look ahead to the next Jupiter retrograde station on December 4th also at, you guessed it, 18 Leo. For added emphasis, this is also the day of our next solar eclipse!
What would Jupiter triggering the degree of the most potent solar eclipse in 650 years mean? Are the global financial trade agreements in deep trouble? Are foreign policy decisions made between now and then of a history-changing intensity? I think so, but do not know for sure, and like most astrologers, I can only wonder in awe, and theorize and postulate like all other forecasters.
Jupiter, ruling foreign affairs and trade, stationing on a powerful eclipse degree, would imply to me that a foreign policy decision being made, such as the invasion of Iraq and the consequent alienation of the Islamic world, would have vast and far reaching effects. Besides the obvious chaos stirred up amongst the Arab nations, and the ongoing retaliatory threat to Israel by the Palestinians and their allies, this military action could serve to unite the three key players in global history at this time: Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair and George W. Bush.
This troika of world leaders seem to hold our near future in their hands. Historically, the presidents and prime ministers who come to, or are in, power at the time of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions will affect the course of history for at least twenty years. Some recent examples are Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin in 1940, Kennedy-Khrushchev in 1961, and Reagan-Brezhnev in 1981.
In any attempt to analyze the use of military force, the leader's natal Sun-Mars relationship should be scrutinized. Blair (6 May 1953; 6:10 AM GDT; Edinburgh, Scotland; Rodden classification: AA - from BC), has an angular separation of Sun and Mars of 341 degrees and 55 minutes; the corresponding Sabian Symbol being Pisces 12: 'A convocation of the Lodge of Initiates has brought the earth's glorious souls, in spirit, to examine candidates' (Lecture Lessons; 1931).
Once again, we see oblique evidence of another world leader being guided in the use of military power by the spiritual beings residing in the hidden worlds. What is even more striking is Vladimir Putin (7 October 1952; 9:30 AM; St Petersburg, Russia; Rodden classification: Unknown Source) and his Sun-Mars relationship.
The angular separation between his Sun and Mars is 287 degrees and 24 minutes, corresponding to the 18th degree of Capricorn. The Sabian Symbol is 'From the proud new warship of Britannia, a token of her maritime power, flies the Union Jack in calm dignity'.
What we may be seeing here is a new British-Russian military alliance, immune to continental European politics, and united against the perceived common threat of fanatical Islamic terrorism. These two powers would then serve as a valuable American back-up in Europe and the Middle East for containment and punishment of terrorist activity.
President Putin, with his natal Mars at 26 Sagittarius, the Galactic Center degree, along with having become a close, personal friend of George W. Bush, can be relied upon for his wisdom and perspective in how to militarily thwart the religious holy war now escalating on the planet with Pluto's passage through Sagittarius until 2008.
Putin, born in 1952 at the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, carries on a Russian tradition linked to this planetary cycle. For example, at the Saturn-Neptune conjunction of 1703, the foundations of St Petersburg were laid. The Russian Revolution occurred during the 1917 conjunction, Stalin died during the 1952-3 conjunction, and the former Soviet Union collapsed at the last 1989 conjunction.
Many of these present leaders, one may suspect, are reincarnated souls from the time of the Crusades, and who are back again to protect the planet from militant Islamic expansionism weakening Christian supremacy. This appears to occur on a repeating 680-year cycle, activated by the triple conjunctions every seven centuries of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
A conjunction of these three planets occurred in 625 AD, near to the recapturing of the Cross of Christ and recovery of Jerusalem from the Persians by Emperor Heraclius; and close to Mohammed's capture of Mecca and the exposition of the principles of Moslem faith written to all the rulers of the world.
Near to the next conjunction of these three planets in 1309 AD, Pope Clement V fixes the papal residence at Avignon in France, beginning of the 'Babylonian Captivity' lasting until 1378, as prophesied in the Old Testament, during which Rome is not the papal seat. The 'Great Schism' then follows, lasting a Saturn cycle of 30 years, resulting in 'Anti-Popes' and dual claims to the papacy.
At the recent triple conjunction of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune in 1989, we began to see increased evidence of radical Muslim clerical aggression, symbolized by the Ayatollah Khomeini declaring a fatwa (death sentence) on author Salman Rushdie for his writing of 'The Satanic Verses'.
*** Solar Eclipse of 4 December 2002 @ 12 Sagittarius ***
Utilizing French astrologer Andre Barbault's Cyclic Index and its correlation to world cycles, we find the index reaching a peak score of 1080 degrees (out of a possible 1800) in 2003. This index is computed by adding the degree distances of the ten subsets of the five outer planets, Jupiter through Pluto. The angular separations of Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Uranus, Jupiter-Neptune, etc. all the way through to the tenth subset, Neptune-Pluto, are added together and plotted on a graph (see The Mountain Astrologer; issue #77; February 1998).
This Cyclic Index was likened by Mr Barbault to the lungs of our solar system, alternatingly expanding and contracting over time. A low of 300 degrees was reached in 1983, followed by an ascent to 840 degrees in 1990. Then, a decline in the Index occurred until 1997, bottoming out at 500 degrees. The Index has been ascending for the last five years, and will decline after 2003 until around 2009-10 when the next Jupiter-Neptune and Jupiter-Uranus conjunctions occur.
Barbault found that good periods coincided with celestial expansion, when the planets separate from each other; and critical periods occur with planetary concentrations near to conjunctions.
2003, a peak year of the Cyclic Index, in part due to the Jupiter-Neptune opposition swelling the degree count, is ushered in shortly after a solar eclipse on 4 December 2002 at 11 Sagittarius 58. This eclipse lands within half a degree of the USA Sibly chart Ascendant (4 July 1776; 5:10 PM LMT; Philadelphia). The eclipse will also fall within half of a degree of the progressed Ascendant of Israel (14 May 1948; 4:32 PM 2E; Tel Aviv).
The implication of this eclipse being angular for both nations seems to point to more suicide bombers attacking Israel, and America experiencing another terrorist attack on her soil. An expanded joint counter-terrorism effort by the US and Israel would likely result should this occur.
This solar eclipse will be angular on the IC in the western USA on a North-South line which runs near to Las Vegas, Nevada and Boise, Idaho.
Yasser Arafat (27 August 1929; 2:00 AM EET; Cairo; Rodden classification: DD) has his secondary progressed Mars at 22 Scorpio approaching an opposition with his natal Moon at 22 Taurus, partile on September 14th. His people may press him to call for increased violence against Israel, or he, himself, may be the target of violence by his own people.
We have already seen the presence of the upcoming December solar eclipse in the assassination attempt on French president Chirac on July 14th. Chirac (29 November 1932; 12:00 PM; Paris; Rodden classification AA) has 11 Sagittarius 59 on his MC, conjunct this next eclipse within one minute of arc. This teaches us that eclipse manifestation can happen prior to, during, and after the actual eclipse, through the 'sensitive degree' theory.
Chirac, with a tight natal Sun-Mars square (5 minutes of arc), has his secondary progressed Sun inconjunct his secondary progressed Mars now, fulfilling C.E.O. Carter's Nativity Rule. The transit Sun on the day of the assassination attempt was at 21, going on 22 degrees of Cancer, triggering the natal Mars at 7 Virgo by octile aspect, and the natal Sun at 7 Sagittarius by trioctile aspect, fulfilling Carter's Law of Excitation. The malefics were also involved, with transit Mars at 0 Leo opposite his natal Saturn at 0 Aquarius.
Expect President Chirac to be pivotal in the unfolding of global events, such as the Franco-Iraqi oil relationship and its relevance to the US military mission there, the UN Security Council decisions, and/or a target of extremists in his own country.
*** 11 September 2002 ***
As the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attack on America came and went, many people were wondering if our country would be struck again. Law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies, along with the military and the National Guard reservists, have all been radically transformed by this event. The highest state of defensive alert since World War II now exists within our country.
With the December eclipse landing on the USA Sibly Ascendant, I am afraid there is the potential of another attack. Several hundred American mosques are now under government surveillance to see if their clerics are preaching radical Islamic fundamentalist hatred of the US and Israel. The government's logic is that if there were to be another attack, it would originate from within these domestic Muslim congregations.
This thinking is consistent with I wrote last year about the USA progressed Mars:
'The USA secondary progressed Mars is almost stationary now, and will progress into retrograde motion for the first time in our nation's history on 18 July 2006 in the 19th degree of Libra, and remain retrograde for 80 years. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is 'A gang of robbers are seen in hiding, ready and anxious to attack the heavily armed caravan just coming into sight'. This station of Mars will have profound implications for our country's military and law enforcement agencies, and suggests that the primary battles will be fought internally on our own soil.
'The USA progressed Mars formed a conjunction with our nation's Saturn on 4 August 1979, and we as a country shortly thereafter experienced the Iran hostage crisis. This was the first indication of radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorism directed hatefully at the USA, and quite closely coincided with the orbit of Pluto at its perihelion penetrating the orbit of Neptune for a 20-year chapter of its 248-year cycle, which, to some astrologers, may suggest the opening of the gates of hell and the obvious arrival of evil into our society.
'The USA progressed retrograde Mars will return to a second conjunction with the greater malefic on 29 May 2031, and astrologers of sound judgment can see the likelihood of the war on terrorism lasting an entire Saturn cycle (September 2001 to May 2031 = 29.5 years). With this in mind, we all need to prepare spiritually for a long and rocky road ahead.'
*** Saturn in Waxing Trine to Uranus and the 1988 Conjunction ***
As Saturn perfected the first of its three trines with Uranus on August 21st, we are now more widely coming to consciousness about what global changes have taken place since the three tropical conjunctions of these two heavenly bodies in 1988, occurring in the final degrees of Sagittarius. There will be a second trine on December 16th, and a final trine will occur on 24 June 24 2003.
During 1988 we saw the Palestinians in the occupied territories begin active resistance (intifada) to Israeli rule. The UK government made permanent its Prevention of Terrorism Act, introduced as a temporary measure in 1974, half a Saturn cycle earlier. United Nations executive and American, Lt. Col. William Higgins, was kidnapped in Lebanon and later hung by Arab terrorists.
Also in 1988 P.L.O. military leader Abu Jihad was assassinated by Israeli secret agents. The US refused an entry visa to Yasser Arafat to address the United Nations in NYC; a special session was held in Geneva instead. Lastly, General Mohammad Zia al-Haq, Pakistani president since 1978, died in an explosion on board his aircraft; sabotage by the Soviets was suspected.
What is the pattern here? In a nutshell, State-sponsored terrorism. Something changed in the world that year when Saturn conjoined with Uranus in the sign of religion (Sagittarius), and a line was crossed. What had used to be random acts of terrorist violence, such as hijackings, kidnappings and murders by extremist groups had now metamorphosed into religiously justified criminal behaviors that were being funded and armed by governments to deliberately destabilize their enemies.
Andre Barbault's mundane analysis of outer planetary cycles is as such: 'conjunction = the current is born; sextile = it takes shape; square = becomes a crisis or an internal conflict; trine = asserts itself and takes wing; opposition = fights or is fought, and meets a final challenge, during which it either surpasses itself or regresses'.
This is precisely the logic behind President Bush's 'Axis of Evil' State of the Union address. He, and the invisible spiritual council guiding him, sees the momentum growing on the planet for this State sponsored terrorism, 'taking wing and asserting itself' according to Barbault. Moving the global chess pieces now to remove Saddam Hussein from power is the absolutely necessary second step in a series of confrontations with Islamic nations who are terrorist sponsors, beginning with the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This will become the driving force in US foreign policy until the five oppositions between Saturn and Uranus from late 2008 to 2010, culminating on July 29th of that year with a massive cardinal T-Cross of Mars/Saturn opposite Jupiter/Uranus and square to Pluto in Capricorn. It is of note that Pluto will be in the karmic 30th degree of Sagittarius on 4 November 2008 when Saturn reaches its first opposition with Uranus, exactly the degree of the Saturn-Uranus conjunction on 12 February 1988.
State sponsored terrorism took shape during the Saturn-Uranus sextiles of 1996-97, and became recognized as a crisis during the Saturn-Uranus squares of 1999-2000, when the suicide attack on the USS Cole closely followed the East African US Embassy bombings. Al-Qaeda was now seen by the intelligence agencies clearly to be interacting through supportive Islamic regimes such as the Taliban.
As we move through these three trines between now and next June, many forces have begun to work in the heavenly realms affecting humanity. Not the least of which are the twenty Neptune-Pluto septiles forming over a ten-year period between 25 December 2001 and 6 February 2011.
The most recent historical precedent for the current waxing septiles between Neptune and Pluto take us back to the years 1495 to 1525, when 54 of these aspects occurred during a thirty-year period and unprecedented exploration began from Europe to the New World.
Christianity was also expanded in a much wider global arc as a result of these sea voyages, seen obliquely through the Sabian Symbol for the 1398 conjunction of Neptune and Pluto in the 4th degree of Gemini: 'A series of rooms in a hospitable house, opening one into the other, are gaily decorated with holly and mistletoe' (Lecture~Lessons; 1931).
Fast-forward the clock of time 500 years to August of 1891 and the subsequent Neptune-Pluto conjunction in the 9th degree of Gemini, the Sabian Symbol being 'A medieval archer stands with the ease of one wholly sure of himself, bow in hand, his quiver filled with arrows'. One might visualize a modern-day Crusade within this symbolism, as the first of the current waxing septiles began on Christmas Day following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on America.
© 2002 Robert P. Blaschke
Robert P. Blaschke, owner of Earthwalk School of Astrology, is a full-time
professional lecturing, teaching and consulting astrologer. He has lectured
at regional and international astrology conferences in the U.S. and Canada,
and has been a guest speaker for many local astrological associations. He
is author of the acclaimed Astrology: A Language of Life series: Volume I
- Progressions, Volume II - Sabian Aspect Orbs and Volume III - A Handbook
for the Self-Employed Astrologer. He will be on the Faculty of the Marriage
of Minds Conference in April 2003 at Hepburn Springs, Victoria. He can be
reached at ewastro@earthlink.net.
