A mess in Gaza

Dear Friend and Reader:

Everyone’s mind seems to be on the war that has broken out between Israel and the Palestinians. This is occurring in the days immediately following a New Moon in early Capricorn. This chart’s main feature was a conjunction of Mars and Pluto exactly square the Aries Point, which raises the pitch of the news to an extreme, and which comes with a feeling of deep personal impact. Nobody needs to be reminded that the Middle East is a tinderbox and that millions are obsessed with the idea that Armageddon will break out there first. Therefore, any war in the Middle East is flirting with global disaster.

It would appear that a bar fight has led to all-out war; but so far, this particular one appears to be a one-sided war. My father is in Israel at the moment, and I am sure he does not agree (his apartment there has a bomb-proof room that the family can retreat to if his city is under attack, which it is not). The crude (by modern military standards), unguided rockets being launched from Gaza into Israel have killed nobody in the past few days and very few people ever. Without demeaning their lives, I think we’re wondering about the justification to escalate the battle.

All sources are reporting that nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed in the past 48 hours by Israeli ‘retaliation’ so far, with hundreds more injured and numerous civilians among them. I am reading that the Israelis are now moving into position for a ground assault. If all of this is not a slaughter of the Palestinians, I would like to hear why not.

Saturday’s New Moon was precisely square the natal Eris in the chart for the State of Israel. My psychological interpretation of Eris (the postmodern identity crisis of Westerners) notwithstanding, Eris was indeed the goddess who, in mythology, instigated the Trojan wars of Greek antiquity. The so-far endless war between Israel and its neighbors is one of epic proportions, verging on mythical. Certainly it rivals any war or massacre chronicled in the Bible.

If indeed Israel’s Eris is implicated in this incident, that does not bode well for the future. Its position is 7+ Aries (square that New Moon to one degree), and in the short run, Mars in Capricorn is about to complete the square. We will get a second test of this Eris position in a few days: on Jan. 5, Mars squares Israel’s natal Eris. We need to watch developments between now and Jan. 5 to have a feeling for how this point in Israel’s chart responds. Additionally, a chart of this magnitude can have effects for a season or longer; big charts often as threshold events.

The real problem I see is in the long-term, because many planets are headed for the early cardinal signs, most particularly Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, and everything is close to the Aries Point: deeply personal and larger than life at the same time.

Hassan Nasrallah is the head of Hezbolah, the ruling party of the Palestinians and one of the cleverest minds in the Middle East. He is being pushed into a bad corner, with few options. Some would say he has to fight back with real artillery, or he will be revealed to be a fraud. Will he respond, and how? Does he have missiles that could crater the Israeli runways while the airplanes are out on bombing runs? Israel’s vulnerable point is its air force. It does not want to reveal the existence of its nuclear armed submarines that prowl the planet.

The Palestinians, for their part, have natal Saturn at 1 degree of Capricorn — precisely where the Mars-Pluto conjunction is right now. This is ominous, and it suggests that they will be under sustained attack. Israel is running out of countries to take its compulsive rage out on. They have a peace treaty with Egypt; the Saudis are obviously off limits; the Iraqis are not a military threat; Iran has not revealed itself to be more than a rhetorical threat (in other words, so far, all words and no action). The Syrians get bombed to bits by Israel every now and then and can do little about it. The Lebanese fight back so they are not a suitable target.

This basically leaves the Palestinians, whose chart does not look good. Nor does their situation. They have no economy. They can barely feed themselves; it’s a miracle they are surviving at all. (Of note, their chart has Asbolus close to the ascendant, which I have often seen in the charts of the survivors of severe long-term abuse.) They can easily be cut off from all provisions by Israel, and are economically and every other way at the mercy of the Israelis. There have been protests around the Middle East expressing the outrage of the Arab people at these attacks. Here is a photo gallery from the New York Times.

The moral high ground that the Israelis typically enjoy is based on the fact that the Jews and many other people — nearly every nationality in Europe at the time — were subjected to a holocaust between 1933 and 1945, after which the State of Israel was founded. However, this high ground is being slowly eroded by the Israelis’ treatment of the Palestinians, who once occupied the land that they now do.

We are following the story and will check back in if there are further key developments. Otherwise we will resume our break from blogging with this post. Your comments are welcome. Thanks to those on the Planet Waves staff, readers who have written in and Dave Roell at the Astrology Center of America who assisted with this brief entry.

Eric Francis

7 thoughts on “A mess in Gaza”

  1. ” I have tried every reasonable method to ascertain the moral truth of what is now happening in Gaza.”

    Yes, Musicman. It’s like watching a married couple kick the living shit out of each other, year after year. You were at their wedding, knew them since they were kids. Years go by, cruisers are out there flashing blue in front of the house at 3AM. She’s crying, both of them look a thousand years old. They’re diseased with rage.

    You say, look, man, it’s enough. There’s divorce court for this. Whatever you wanted from that guy, you’re not going to get it. Indiana. Let it go. All they’ll do is give you their evidence, trying to enlist you in something you’d have to be crazy to understand. And finally you say forget it, I’m done, let them kill each other.

    “What we have here is addiction. Each can open up the others’ wound, and then bring on the hell that will punish the other. This in turn gives each the raison d’etre to orchestrate Armageddon!”

    Perfect description. Samuel P. Huntington calls it a fault line war. They never end. No, never. It’s not going to start Armageddon; or I should say, what you’re looking at there is the real Armageddon. It’s a psychopathic convergence in the psyche, it tells them who they are. Some part of them believes that without it, they do not exist. Under a certain lens it’s easy to understand. They can’t live without each other.

    …Yeah, I know Ixion. Grandaddy of the Centaurs. Black sheep of the family. He’s on my MC as a matter of fact. :). Part of him reminds me of this guy:

    Tony Montana: Orders? You giving me orders? Amigo, the only thing in this world that gives orders is balls. You got that? Balls.

    ~j

  2. Don’t let me get in the way of the astrology with this comment, but my only sanity when I read this interpretation, is Eric’s earlier definition of astrology where he stated that astrology has no will of its own.

    And I guess it is high time that Israel take some of the responsibility for their part in this. You are bold in openly approaching the sacred cow.

  3. “You cannot expect to have an intellectual debate with a rabid dog. You shoot it”

    I have tried every reasonable method to ascertain the moral truth of what is now happening in Gaza. But, as we all know, there is none! I lean towards the Palestinians as a matter of family honour! My wife is a West African Muslim; her sister is married to a member of the Lebanese Maroun family, who are originally from the village of Al-Maroun in southern Lebanon. This was annhialated by the Israelis in 2006.

    There is also a Jewish strand to the relatives in the back end of my family in Liverpool. UK. It is therefore crucial that any debate on the current conflict embraces as much of both sides of our extended family as possible. I should also add that I have just spent 3 years in West Africa, which is 95% Muslim. The sense of peace and enlightenment that I encountered was all-embracing.

    I have a little knowledge of Hezbollah and Hamas, and have followed their efforts to bring about a peace in recent years. Offers were made to the Israeli government, but these were refused. Your best guess is as good as mine, but words like politician, election and vote come to mind. There is no doubt that both Hezbollah and Hamas have talked about the destruction of Israel. Perhaps this intransigent refusal to retract such a stance plays a part in Israel’s refusal to compromise on the West Bank and other issues. Either way, we now have two sides locked in an “us and them” stand-off that has no resolution.

    So I looked long and hard at the Charts that Eric posted today. The cluster of Sun, Mars, Pluto and Lilith that are transiting the Aries point at 1 degree Capricorn. Taking the Israeli chart first, Jupiter and the Part Fortuna in the 3rd are opposite Venus and Uranus in the 9th In the Palestinian chart, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune in the 4th are opposite Chiron, Part Fortuna and Varuna in the 10th

    So the Israeli Uranus in Gemini 9th exactly opposite Palestinian Uranus in the Sagittarian 4th. Two forces of electric lightning trying to be earthed! Orcus will bring the Israelis to exact total God of the Underworld revenge upon the Palestinian wound as Chiron and Varuna oppose the Saturn Neptune Uranus cluster.

    Now this is where it gets compulsive. The Israeli Chiron is 1st house 21 degrees Scorpio opposite 8th house Sun at 23 degrees Taurus. The Palestinian Sun is at 22 degrees Scorpio 3rd house conjunct Quaoar and Ixion. What we have here is addiction. Each can open up the others’ wound, and then bring on the hell that will punish the other. This in turn gives each the raison d’etre to orchestrate Armageddon!

    Finally as Eric mentioned this morning, Eris is at 7 degrees Aries in the 6th in the Israeli chart. This is opposite Neptune and Ixion in the 12th. Both are square the current Pluto/Mars transit and the wide natal Venus Uranus cluster in the 9th. Ouch!

    There is no easy fix, no political solution or rhetoric that can ease the pain. But once a civilisation has lost its survival instinct and preaches death, then the rules of the game most definitely have changed. You cannot find a rational solution to a situation where killers roam around at will. You would not allow your dog to behave like that. In fact I would state quite categorically that you cannot expect to have an intellectual debate with a rabid dog. You shoot it!

    PH

  5. “Hassan Nasrallah is the head of Hezbolah, the ruling party of the Palestinians…”

    no, Hezbolah is Lebanon, are you thinking of Hamas (ruling party of Gaza)? or I think it’s Fatah in the West Bank, with Mahmoud Abbas as the head, who is the one more supported by the West / Israel while they try and crush Hamas (which is what they are doing with this latest military operation, besides killing civilians)

  7. I woke up at dawn to a loud Crack! like a thunderclap in my kitchen, and said outloud: “Well, there goes the Aries Point.” Got up to make sure it was an inner sound, and not the side of my house falling off. Nyope.

    Not sure if I can hear Israel, but Eris is not that far away.

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