NewsScope for July 31, 2001

Saturn and Pluto Establish Enemy Camps

President Bush's recent European trip clinched his critics' view that he is driving the U.S. into isolationism. In Geneva 178 nations reached an accord on global warming, and only the U.S. said no. Likewise the Bush Administration was the only national government in the world to denounce an accord banning the production, development, and possession of biological weapons.

Astrologically, the Saturn-Pluto opposition is beginning to shape global events into an "us versus them" series of battles. In both the Kyoto Accord and the biological weapons accord President Bush cited economic reasons for denouncing the international agreements, and the same rationale was given for denouncing the protestors' agenda outside the G-8 summit in Genoa.

In the Scorpio Rising U.S. horoscope, the Saturn-Pluto opposition (exact on August 5) takes place in the Second and Eighth Houses, which are the two financial houses. The Second House is the nation's assets and values. The Eighth House is the house of capitalism itself, where shared financial resources are pooled to make giant corporations, including the international conglomerates that finance political campaigns and promote free trade.

Saturn and Pluto oppose each other three times over the coming year, and representing an epochal restructuring process within the global village's various institutions. A polarization of interests solidifies and becomes an intense dichotomy shaping world events. The second Saturn-Pluto opposition occurs on November 2, only one month after the IMF meeting in Washington DC when the next wave of anti-globalization protests can be expected.

Carlo Giuliani, The First Activist Killed in Action

Last week's explosive protests against the G-8 economic summit in Genoa, Italy brought the first casualty in the escalating anti-globalization movement. Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a policeman after he and others rushed a military jeep. Since then, Giuliani has become an international symbol against big business and the globalization process.

Carlo Giuliani was born a self-sacrificing Pisces (March 14, 1978; 8:30 pm; Rome*) with Libra Rising. The normal peace-loving, diplomatic traits of a Libra Ascendant are overwhelmed in this case since Venus, the chart ruler, is in pushy Aries, and impassioned by bold, new ideas with the conjunction to Mercury. Then Aries' ruler, the warrior planet Mars, dominates the personality by its conjunction with the Midheaven and exact trine to the Sun.

Mars resides in emotional Cancer and was activated by transiting Uranus and Chiron on the day Giuliani was shot. Transiting Uranus in Aquarius calls for equal rights, and connected with Mars does so insistently and with tremendous passion. Chiron in Sagittarius feels the psychological pain of exclusion, and when aspecting Mars is willing to fight with tremendous ferocity.

These three planets formed a fateful Yod, and we can imagine how he got carried away in the excitement of the moment to become a martyr for his cause. Then the transiting lunar node axis, symbolizing the karmic path, was exactly squaring his fiery Venus. His last breath was taken as he menacingly lifted a fire extinguisher over his head, as if he personally was attempting to put out the fires of corporate globalization.

Cruise and Cruz

"He flat out swore to me up and down that there was nothing going on," said Nicole Kidman about estranged husband Tom Cruise, according to a close friend of hers. Last week Tom Cruise's spokeswoman admitted that he and Penelope Cruz had been dating recently, and the two spent a week together in an exclusive $1500 a night resort in the Fiji Islands.

Penelope Cruz was born a pleasure-loving Taurus (April 28, 1974; Madrid, Spain; time unknown) with her Mars and Saturn in Cancer. This Mars-Saturn conjunction is under tremendous developmental tension by squaring Pluto, so that the man in her life, as symbolized by Mars, must be capable of assuming the pressures and ambitions inherent in this natal configuration.

As a Cancer born July 3, 1962, Tom Cruise fits the bill. Cruise and Cruz were born one Jupiter cycle apart from each other, so they tend to find opportunities at the same time and in each other. Her Venus sextile his Mars adds juice to the budding relationship. Transiting Neptune has been squaring her Sun since the two finished filming Vanilla Sky together last March, fueling rumors that they had a secret relationship.

Over the coming week transiting Jupiter will arrive on Penelope's Mars, bringing their relationship into the open. This is corroborated by transiting Juno, the partnership asteroid, which arrives on her Mars simultaneously, followed by Venus a few days later. Venus, Juno and Jupiter all hit Penelope's Mars and square her Pluto. The combination is a volatile mix of love, jealousy, passion, rage, and tenderness-just the stuff of romantic triangles.

*Data is rated AA from birth certificate according to NewsScope's Italian correspondent, Rishi Giovanni Gatti.