That the god of war holds dominion over civil unrest and national forces of strife should be fairly obvious. What is not so easy to acknowledge is that such breakdowns of civilised social intercourse are in many ways necessary in the greater scheme of things. I tend to the view that there is a natural need for conflict and competition within us and within all of nature, just as there is a need for stability and peace.
Within the past few months, especially centering around the Capricorn Solstice (see chart), there has been an emphasis on disputes, disagreements and outright violence in a variety of internationally prominent settings. This has been associated with the prominent opposition between a retrograde, fallen Mars in Cancer and the Sun-Pluto-Jupiter-Mercury stellium sitting astride the Sagittarius/Capricorn cusp.
Probably the most reported and likely the most crucial event that correlated with this picture was the summit of world environmental ministers which took place in Bali, charged with developing a framework for a new climate agreement for the world. We can see in this event, which took place from 3 December to 15 December 2007, and which actually over-ran into an unplanned extra day because of difficulties coming to a compromise, the last-minute pressure of international diplomacy in the face of vast looming disaster, symbolised by the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in the very last degrees of Sagittarius, soon to move into Capricorn, the sign of worldly reality and limitations. Mars opposing represented the recalcitrance and resentful negativity shown by a variety of national interests who seemed to be unwilling to pursue any meaningful joint and flexible agreements about emissions. I think the sensitivity of the 0º Capricorn/Cancer axis to major internationally significant events is again highlighted here.
On 27 December 2007, Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, and twice former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated during a political rally in Rawalpindi. She had recently returned to the strife-riven country from exile, and was intending to contest the planned general elections planned for February 2008. Pakistan (see chart) has had a stormy history since its foundation on 14 August 1947 at 9:30 am IST, in Karachi (this was when the British viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, addressed the constitutional assembly to declare independence from the British). Its foundation chart has a fallen Mars at 0º Cancer on the MC, conjunct Uranus – which is hardly suggestive of stability, especially considered together with the Venus/Saturn/Pluto triple conjunction in Leo in the eleventh house, the house of political assembly.
Bhutto’s assassination threw a fragile process of return to civilian democratic rule into chaos again, only months after the military junta headed by Pervez Musharraf had been finally persuaded to transfer powers back to a democratically elected parliament. The country has been torn apart by a powerful resurgence of fundamentalist Islamic militias in opposition to more moderate pro-Western forces, echoing the greater regional conflict which has spread throughout many countries in South-West Asia over the past decade and longer.
When Bhutto was assassinated, there was a partile transiting Mars-Jupiter opposition in the second degree of Cancer/Capricorn. This was clearly hitting off Pakistan’s natal Mars. Transiting Pluto was also closely opposing Mars, and will continue to do so throughout 2008. Incidentally, transiting Neptune was in partile opposition to Pakistan’s natal Sun, perhaps reflective of the chaos and confusion surrounding the country’s leadership.
The third international crisis recently in the news was in Kenya, where presidential elections were thrown into turmoil with allegations of electoral fraud and violence between supporters of the re-elected Mwai Kibaki and the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga. The violence emerged along well-established tribal faultlines which have undermined Kenya’s unity since before its emergence as an independent nation on 12 December 1963 (see chart). In this chart, Mars is exalted in Capricorn in the fourth house. Between the end of December 2007 and January 2008, transiting Jupiter has been conjoining natal Mars while transiting Saturn has been stationing on the Ascendant. It looks like Kenya will be undergoing some major transformative convulsions in its government and national identity through 2008 as the Saturn-Uranus opposition sets off the natal Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the first house and squares the Sun in the house of the people.
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