This
article, the second of a 3-part series, explores the Saturn transit
to the Sun in the United States chart coming up in June 2004, as
well as other outer planet transits to the U.S. chart. The symbolism
reveals further problems for the Bush White House at this time.
Like the prophetic “Ides
of March” from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, mid June spells trouble
for this already besieged administration.
(See Ides
of June, Part 1 and Part
3)
Saturn's
Direct Station in March 2004
As Saturn stationed direct this March, on the 7th, ceasing its backwards
motion and preparing for the last direct hit on U.S. Sun this coming
June, it presented the first indication of what may be to come for the
Bush White House as this volatile spring unfolds. Saturn's direct station
was very close to U.S. Jupiter, planet of belief and hope. With Saturn
stationing there, we might expect that belief on the part of the public
to be somewhat strained by events. On March 24 Pluto also stationed opposite
the U.S. Mars, representing the military. Indeed March has been a pivotal
month for the administration and its war in Iraq . On March 8, the Iraqi
governing council paved the way for the turnover of U.S. control to the
Iraqi people, scheduled now for July 1, 2004. Meanwhile, the Madrid bombing
that took place on March 11, and subsequent pullout of Spanish troops
from the occupying forces, gave pause to U.S. administration claims that
the world was acting in concert with the U.S. in invading Iraq.
The March
19th anniversary of the start of the war was heralded by demonstrations
around the world against the U.S. government. This is the Spring Equinox
and Aries New Moon, which opposed the U.S. Midheaven and squared its
ruler. In the demonstrations—tens
of thousands of people in this country and hundreds of thousands
all over the world took to the streets to demonstrate against the
U.S. backed war, the largest anti-war demonstration since the previous
spring when the war was being planned and massive protests tried
to stop the invasion from happening.
Another challenge to the administration has been the disclosures revealed
by Richard Clarke in Against All Enemies .
In the book he states that pre-9-11 the Bush White House was interested
in only one thing, the invasion of Iraq, and was not only uninterested
in Al Qaeda before 9-11, but was more interested in Iraq as a target
than Afghanistan even after the events of September 2001. His detailed
report denying any link of 9-11 to Iraq was rejected. Finally disgusted
with administration policy, he resigned in February 2003. His book was
published and Clarke testified before the 9-11 commission, and the 60
Minutes interview was conducted, just as Pluto turned
retrograde on March 24 opposed to U.S. Mars, symbolizing a new look at
U.S. militarism.
The
Neptune Factor
Several other types of transits to the U.S. chart support the idea that
this spring will be a rocky one for the country in general and the Bush
administration in particular. One of the most interesting of these involves
transits to the U.S. Neptune in the Ninth House, associated with publishing,
education, and higher mind, belief systems in general. What does Neptune
in this position tell us about the American character? The symbolism
of Neptune is two-fold. It can either represent involvement with idealism
and a spiritual frame of reference, removed from a so-called real world
point of view, or in its negative mode can represent escapism, even outright
deception. Certainly all of these factors are part and parcel of the
American social setting, especially as regarding Ninth House concerns.
What immediately leaps to mind is America 's fascination with media of
all kinds, including the phenomenon of the movie star. There is also
a spiritual component to this country's origins, beginning with the concept
of freedom from religious persecution, and continuing with the influence
of the masons upon the founding fathers, many of whom were members of
that spiritual order. Idealism in matters of education is also an American
trait. But the shadow side of this Neptune placement is the issue of
deception in the country's news media, which has bordered on propaganda
in recent years. This tendency of the so-called free press to pander
to the military-industrial complex and the corporations is well-documented
in Noam Chomsky's seminal work Manufacturing Consent in
which he shows how atrocities committed by non-aligned nations are described
in the U.S. media with far greater detail than those committed by U.S.
allies. This tendency towards propaganda has grown in recent years, especially
with the first Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq . During the invasion,
journalists were actually “embedded” in the military, and tended to report
from the standpoint of the troops rather than taking a less biased and
more objective position. Those journalists that did not take the official
point of view were sanctioned.
In
keeping with this recent predilection for deception in American journalism,
we note that Neptune has been forming important aspects to the U.S.
chart for the past year, beginning with a quincunx to U.S. Sun that
was active during the time of the invasion and beyond. The last exact
hit on this aspect occurs in December of 2004. Coincident with this
aspect is a sextile to the Ascendant over exactly the same time period,
since the Sun in the U.S. chart aspects the Ascendant, with transiting
Neptune forming a Yod pattern to the Sun and Ascendant for this entire
period. The Yod, or “finger of God” aspect pattern,
puts emphasis on trauma and eventual transformation on the focal point
of the pattern, U.S. Sun in this case.
The station
of Neptune on May 15, 2003 was exactly in aspect to the U.S. Ascendant
and Sun, and occurred on the day of the breaking of the news story
that most clearly illustrates the concept of deception in Iraqi war
journalism, the story of the “Saving of Private Lynch.” The
salient facts are that Private Jessica Lynch was not bravely fighting
off Iraqi's when captured, but rather she was injured in an auto accident,
and that her rescue was staged after Iraqi forces had already withdrawn,
by soldiers firing blanks, just like on a movie set, and after the Iraqi
hospital where she was being treated had already attempted to return
her to the American forces in an ambulance. From the May 20, 2003 news
story by Robert Scheer, published in the LA Times and on Alternet:
Her
story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever
conceived, the BBC concluded—the polite British way of saying “liar,
liar, pants on fire." Indeed there are many other major deceptions:
the press complicity already alluded to, the excuses leading up
to the war, intended to conceal the real causes for this war of
invasion, which are now beginning to emerge. There is also the
recent denial of U.S. involvement in the overthrow and kidnapping
of President John Bertrand Aristide of Haiti , in spite of eyewitnesses,
which takes us up to the present. The administration position: “that
didn't happen.” |
(See footnote
below for more information.)
Chiron
was also opposed to U.S. Sun and trine U.S. Neptune at the time of the
invasion. Chiron symbolizes the Wounded Healer, and the American public's
perception of itself, especially with regard to deception on the part
of government officials, has indeed been challenged in the course of
these recent events. The
Outing of Agent Valerie Plame
One of the
more disturbing incidents surrounding the war in Iraq has been the
Valerie Plame incident. She was a CIA operative engaged in important
work for which she remained undercover for many years until her identity
was leaked to the press in July 2003, compromising her and the people
she worked with, as well as her clandestine contacts and her company's
cover. Announcing the name of a secret agent is a felony. The genesis
of this flagrantly illegal and destructive act that appears to spring
from the White House is that her husband, former ambassador Joseph
Wilson, had posted strong criticisms of the Bush administration after
his efforts to clarify the now famous Iraq-uranium-Africa link were
ignored, a mission he undertook in February 2002 at the request of
the CIA. Although this expert on African affairs dismissed the Iraq
connection as a fabrication after he had met extensively with both
government and non-government officials in Niger , Bush in his January
2003 State of the Union message went ahead and referenced the uranium
Iraq connection. When former Ambassador Wilson openly criticized the
administration on July 6, 2003 for cynically using discredited information
to fan the flames of war, his wife's identity was leaked to the media
and published in the July 14 column of conservative commentator Robert
Novak. The leak is directly attributable to the White House, with several
journalists being contacted by a “highly placed administration
official,” thereby endangering Plame's life as well as her mission. Her
mission was, ironically, to attempt to limit the spread of WMD in the
world.
The
transits to the United States chart around this incident point to transiting
and natal Chiron as a factor. To be specific, on January 28, 2003,
the date of the State of the Union message during the run-up to war
that contained the famous “sixteen words” regarding
Iraq, yellowcake uranium and the country of Niger, Chiron was exactly
opposed to U.S. Sun, and conjuncted by the Moon that night. Transiting
Saturn was also square the U.S. Neptune that day, bringing the element of deception in again. On July 6, 2003, when Wilson made his critical
remarks, the U.S. Chiron was being aspected by transiting Jupiter and
Venus, while transiting Chiron squared U.S. Saturn.
The square
was exact on July 14 when Novak published his column. Then, in September
and October 2003 when the disclosure of Plame's identity became national
news, Chiron was again within a degree of opposing the U.S. Sun, in
the process of making its last pass on that opposition.
How does the symbolism
of Chiron fit the Valerie Plame incident? Chiron is known as the Wounded
Healer, and in natal charts reflects where we are wounded, and the
archetype of despair in complete self-acceptance, in coming to terms
with our all too human nature. It is a wound to the nation's national
pride in self that the upholders of the law in the executive branch are
the very ones that are breaking the law.
Their purported
search for WMD in order to defend American lives turns out to be detrimental
to the real search for WMD in the world, thereby endangering American
lives. This story has a poignancy that reveals the core of inner cruelty
and lack of judgment on the part of this administration, and that may
eventually help to bring it down. The story has been referred to in
some media accounts as similar to Watergate, in that a simple and stupid
action upon closer examination is shown to be the tip of a larger iceberg
of misconduct in high places. Footnotes:
Original
article from The Washington Post, April 3, 2003
Article from The
Guardian, May 15, 2003
Article from Alternet, May, 20. 2003
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