Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong-il

Two of the most noted world leaders of our era died this weekend — one of the darkest and one of the most enlightened. Kim Jong-il, the modestly-titled “supreme leader” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (that is, North Korea, serving from 1997 to 2011), was attacked by his heart and died Saturday. The next day, Vachlav Havel died. He was the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, serving from 1989 to 2003. It would be hard to imagine two more different global figures, or examples of humanity.

They left the planet as the Sun made its annual approach to the Galactic Core — that is, aligning with the center of our galaxy, an aspect which was very close over the weekend and is exact today. Other notable aspects include Uranus on the Aries Point (which happens once per 84 years), the conjunction of Vesta and Neptune (which happens every four to five years) and of course, we’re early in the era of the Uranus-Pluto square. These men were both revolutionaries in their own right. In identifying your place on the political spectrum, you might ask yourself who you identify with more.

Havel was the guy who brought Czechoslovakia out of the Soviet era and into the modern world. He was a world leader, but was also a widely-regarded playwright and nonfiction author. I cannot think of another prominent national leader who came from a prior career in the theater. He was Libra with Aquarius rising and a Gemini Moon, born Oct. 5, 1936. His birth time is not sourced but it’s published as 3 pm, and he was clearly the type who might have told an astrologer his data. The most notable aspect in his chart is a grand cross in the mutable signs — those restless, sensitive, ‘tell me both sides of the issue’ signs that are so often prominent in the charts of intellectuals.

The grand cross includes the Moon, Chiron and the South Node in Gemini, opposite Jupiter in Sagittarius (which are aligned closely with the recent eclipses); and this is square Neptune in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces. Said another way, he has both Jupiter opposite Chiron and Saturn opposite Neptune — he was doing that thing that Rilke talked about, stretching himself over the contradiction until it made sense.

On July 4, 1994, Havel was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal. In his acceptance speech, he said: “The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world.”

As for Kim Jong-il, we don’t know all that much (well, the NSA might) because North Korea is the last remaining vestige of the Iron Curtain. He was a throwback to the days of communist cult leaders, complete with all the titles. In April 2009, North Korea’s constitution was amended to refer to him implicitly as the “Supreme Leader”.[8] He was also referred to as the “Dear Leader,” “our Father,” “the General” and “Generalissimo.” Officially he was General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the ruling party since 1948; Chairman of the the National Defense Commission of North Korea; and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, the fourth-largest standing army in the world. In addition, he was the Exalted Chairman of the People’s Democratic Parent-Teacher Association.

He was reputed to be everything from a piano virtuoso to someone who could personally control the weather. Some believed that his choice of clothing influenced world fashion trends. That is plausible.

According to a 2004 Human Rights Watch report, North Korean government under Kim was “among the world’s most repressive governments”, having up to 200,000 political prisoners and no freedom of the press or religion, political opposition or equal education and health care: “Virtually every aspect of political, social, and economic life is controlled by the government.”

We don’t know for sure what year Kim Jong-il was born, but it was either 1941 or 1942. I spent time with both charts this morning and decided that the 1941 chart was a bit more like him, though the point could be debated. In the 1941 chart, we have a tense (and rare) alignment of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus in Taurus, which would give him a pretty high opinion of himself and a heck of a lot of inner conflict. The next year Jupiter has moved into Gemini, which would have made him a bit easier-going and more inclined to show up at the production of one of Havel’s plays.

I guess it takes all types — but it tells you something about the world that more people recognize the name Kim Jong-il than recognize the name Vaclav Havel.