Assault
On San Gracia Monastery, 1809
by Baron Lejeune.
"All kinds of trouble
goin' to find you
somehow..." -- Butch Hawes
Although
the period of
spring and early summer grand
trines gave the world a brief celestial respite, the bombings in Mumbai
and
especially the invasion of Lebanon now remind us that we are being
pulled back
to a grinding period of conflict to which no one seems to have a ready
solution. It seems like the bad guys are on top even when
they’re
our guys, and
that’s something that seems to happen historically in periods
when Saturn (the
established powers) stand opposed to the outer planets (social
evolution) in
the sky. Our leaders everywhere have become part of the problem instead
of the
solution, which often leads to terrible wars and costly global errors,
such as
in the run-up to World War II and the period of the Vietnam War, but
regularly
recurring for centuries before either. The current such period we are
now in
ends in 2008, so we’ve got a couple of more frustrating and
dangerous years to
get through. For an in-depth look at that, see our newsletter article
on the subject: Which Side
Are
You On?
But
there’s more
than just that particular historical
trend. In Lebanon, we are seeing a pattern of boxed-in conflict that
has
continued since the Arab-Israeli wars began in 1948. Starting with the
war of
Israeli independence that began May 15, 1948, there have already been
five
major wars in the series, some of which have seemed to be spectacular
victories
for Israel, but nearly 60 years later not much actual progress has been
made.
There are many political reasons, but astrologically there is an
astonishing
trend that describes the obvious. To pursue a successful war, it is
important
to begin it on a date with a strong Mars – it's the god of
war,
after all – which
depicts the energy, strength, and follow-through necessary to achieve
both
initial and lasting victory. Unlikely as it might seem, each of the
five wars
has had a dreadfully afflicted Mars, no matter which side began it, or
which
seemed to win it.
A
Constant
Affliction
The
affliction is the
same in them all – each was begun
either during or directly after Mars was retrograde, the weakest period
in its
nearly two-year cycle. If there are any astrologers left in the cradle
of
civilization that began the art, no one there has been listening to
them
lately. Of the five, the first came closest to getting Mars clear of
his
weakness, and thus was the most successful, staking out Israel nearly
as it
stands today. Yet, at 28 Leo, it was still six degrees short of getting
out of
its retrograde “shadow” point at 4 Virgo, and
appropriately
just fell short of
getting one of its major goals, the taking of Jerusalem. The external
reason?
World powers closed in to stop the affair before its intended
conclusion.
The
other four did far
worse:
*The
Suez war of October 29,
1956 saw Mars at 15 Pisces
only two degrees past its stationary direct point of 13 Pisces, and
nowhere near
clear of the shadow point of 23 Pisces, and Eisenhower undercut both
Britain
and Israel and called a stop to it.
*The
brilliantly preemptive 1967
war, on June 5, was a bit
too preemptive with Mars at 15 Libra only half a degree past its direct
station
and was reined in by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
*The
Arab surprise attack on Yom
Kippur, October 6, 1973
had Mars freshly retrograde at 7 Taurus, and was a total disaster,
halted by
the Cold War powers yet again before the fiasco could go further.
*Israel’s
D-Day invasion
of Lebanon on June 6, 1982 saw
Mars at 4 Libra only four degrees past its direct station, but was not
intended
to do more than create a buffer zone allowed by the world powers and
later given up.
In all cases, if these were the dogs of war, they were on a short
leash, held
back by muscular superpowers ready to incite their surrogates while
giving them
little room to get the job done.
A
New Twist
The
current invasion of
Lebanon this July 12, the first
major post-Cold War effort, has its own afflictions. For the first time
ever,
Mars at 23 Leo is totally clear of its retrograde space left behind
last year.
Further, the only reigning superpower seems totally uninterested in
reining in
the efforts of its surrogate, leaving the Lebanese totally at the mercy
of
Israel and its greater enemies in the region as they destroy the
country and
its citizens at will until one side runs out of ammunition. If that
were all
there was to it, the game would be over, swept entirely by Israel with
the U.S.
looking on with a smile. But, Mars this time was barely coming out from
under
an affliction by Saturn, and Mercury was retrograde. That means Mars
again has
a distinct sense of limitation, particularly because the prearranged
plan
itself (Mercury) was faulty and once again was triggered prematurely, a
seemingly
huge
overreaction to a very ordinary, usually resolvable provocation.
None of
this is of much
comfort to the innocents being
savaged by yet another set of misguided and mishandled political and
military
operations. For them we can only pray and hope that the greater
historical
trends do finally take another reversal at the eleventh hour, as they
always
have, because in this stage those in power have little intention or
capability
of doing anything about it. Everyone involved in the situation can be
described
by a single, somewhat obscene but totally appropriate phrase the Poles
sometimes use to describe their own wars of resistance in times of
Saturn and Mars affliction: ni chuja.
Go on, Google it. The
philosophical interpretation would be “hopeless, no
way,”
while the literal
translation is a bit more surgically genital. The parties actually
involved
right now, tragically, are experiencing both...
Follow-Up,
Just Out:
The
Mideast is not the only bunch
suffering from n* c****
– America is watching
its
own Mars go retrograde right now, and after the radical changes of
2008-9 will then experience a
Saturn-Moon siege that won’t let up until its Pluto return in
2023. And more. Read
it here...
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us know what you
think! Write us: townley@astrococktail.com
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