Correction: According to "The American Atlas," published by ACS of San Diego, California, Chicago, Illinois was on CDT as of April 24, 1932. This gives Rumsfeld a 10 Sagittarius Ascendant. Special thanks goes to Starcats reader, Wilma Bromet, for calling this error to my attention.
 |
July 7, 2001 marks the Saturn Return of 1972's Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In days leading up to the "accidental" release of Rumsfeld's ("Dr. Strangelove") Memorandum re Mil-to-Mil Contact with China, Bush, et al. took flak for numerous unilateral decisions re Starwars II (Missile Defense Shield or "MDS"), arms sales to Taiwan and renewed military cooperation with India. ¹
Over the last week or so, news headlines indicate that it may be time to start redrawing the maps. ² Dubya's steamrolling of Russian and French Heads of State (prior to his MDS announcement on Monday) were summed up as "he just kissed it off." According to France, Bush allowed no more than 10 minutes per telephone call to Russia and France before making his live-TV MDS announcement.
As fear of U.S. hegemony escalates on the Asian continent, Russia forges new alliances with China and North Korea -- events which Dr. Strangelove (and HR-Rep Henry Hyde of Clinton Impeachment fame) see as the re-emerge of an "evil empire." Nevermind that the U.S is careening towards a dangerous isolationism via the Bush administration's unilateralism. GOP extremists like Rumsfeld and Hyde are convinced that the USA needs no allies. For reasons that defy logic, the Bush administration is under the impression that Jesus will save us. Perhaps Dubya will rely upon faith-based programs to clean up after WW III.
|
|
 Notable cross-links between Bush's natal chart and the ABM Treaty chart bear watching. The South node of the chart, 27 Cancer, conjoins Bush's natal Saturn. The North Node, 27 Capricorn, conjoins the USA's natal Pluto. More chilling is that the ABM's North Node conjoins the arabic part of Death. Since the same nodal axis falls across the USA's 2nd and 8th houses, we can assume, via early-on projections, that breaking the ABM Treaty in favor of MDS will have economic (2nd house) and perilous (8th house) consequences.³
|
|
|
Mercury at 24 Taurus (the position of Saturn in Dubya's Inauguration chart) applies to a conjunction from the 9th house of law to the 12 Noon Midheaven (28 Taurus) which is conjoined to ALCYONE, the fixed star of "great grief." Both are in square to transiting Uranus (24 Aquarius) which falls in the ABM Treaty chart's 6th house of the military, policing, world policing, and troop "readiness." Uranus, the planet most clearly associated with the body politic as well as jolting "reform," opposes Dr. Strangelove's natal Jupiter in Leo. Hence, the Jupiter-Uranus connection, oftentimes associated with threat of war, comes to roost a) in the Treaty's house of military; and b) in Dr. Strangelove's 8th house of death (natal Jupiter).
"Death" can mean the obvious, but 8th house issues also represent loss and gain in connection with behaviors that lend themselves to creation and destruction. Death or loss in this case may not so much signify immediate "war," but my be the foreshadowings of what the USA stands to lose: world credibility. A weakening of the USA's power in regards to issues of trust will severe consequences of their own. (fn 4)
Mars' transiting conjunction to Chiron (28 Sagittarius) squares the ABM Treaty's natal Pluto at 29 Virgo retrograde. The Midpoint of this square is 29 Scorpio lying opposite the chart's 12 Noon ALCYONE Midheaven. While the Midheaven Midpoint I refer to cannot be relied upon as exact (the time for this chart is unknown), it and the other house cusps delineated by viewing the Sun's culmination at Noon is revealing, to say the least.
This brings me to the chart's Saturn Return of July 1, 2001. As mentioned in previous articles, Mars' 2001 retrograde along with 1) Saturn's entrance into Gemini; 2) the Jupiter Pluto opposition (exact now); and 3) Saturn's upcoming opposition to Pluto resonate with the ABM Treaty's Saturn Return. Confrontations over this treaty will escalate the closer the transiting Gemini Sun comes to the Treaty's natal Sun (5 Gemini). The Sun approaching Saturn indicates that international leaders (Sun) will seek to limit (Saturn) the USA's perceived (or real) hegemony by proliferating (Jupiter) their own defense mechanisms. This is already in play as witnessed by Russia's expanding (Jupiter) friendship with China and North Korea. In that the Treaty chart's progressed Saturn is 13 Gemini, transiting Jupiter already crossed the P-Saturn point a few days prior to the transiting Jupiter-Pluto opposition. This is a critical marking point, as the contacts I just mentioned are of longer-duration. What has been initiated will be exacerbated. Since the Treaty chart speaks of checks upon "nuclear proliferation," it is easy to see how the Uranian "breaking" of the Treaty fosters a Jupiterian expansion of precisely what the Treaty sought to prevent.
Dr. Strangelove,
July 9, 1932,
5:40 PM CDT +5:00,
Chicago, Illinois,
41N51 87W39
Asc: 10 Sagittarius
17 Degrees of any sign is sensitive for Rumsfeld and the Treaty Chart. Pallas Athena (the asteroid associated with "strategery," as Dubya would say) is at 17 Cancer (Treaty chart) conjoined to Rumsfeld's natal Sun-Pluto conjunction. Rumsfeld's natal Pallas is in quincunx (an aspect of complications) to Treaty Pallas. These bodies are "obscured" by Pluto's helmet of invisibility (fn 5). Thus, don't expect to see Rumsfeld in the media much but do expect to be blindsided by his sudden (natal Uranus at 23 Aries) contentious (Mars ruler) announcements. Also, we can expect that the Bush administration will play their backtracking game as many times as they can get it to work. The so-called "gaffe" by Rumsfeld's aide, Chris Williams, was called a "mistake." Williams, the Pentagon said, misunderstood Rumsfeld's intentions and disseminated a memo which contained errors. However, memos of this type are never released without a final review by the chief in charge. In this case, Rumsfeld would have to have read Williams' draft, approved it, and signed off on it. The Pentagon lied about it and, in turn, the press, equally confused, related the lies to the people. It is interesting to note that Williams is allegedly set to leave Rumsfeld within a month to take a position with Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor that upgraded the USA's Patriot Missiles.
Update
". . . Rumsfeld has excluded military insiders from the review and is so tightlipped about his ideas that few people know what direction he plans to steer the nation's defense.
"While he's a leader for the Bush administration's plans for a missile defense, the 68-year-old plainspoken secretary is mysterious when it comes to the top-to-bottom review he's doing of the U.S. military." -- There's that helmet of invisibility I told you about! -- Starcats, 5/5/01.
Story link.
May 5, 2001, Starcats
|
Footnotes:
¹ Washington Times, May 3, 2001, "U.S., India Restore Cooperation by Militaries." (Military exercises had been cut-off due to India's nuclear tests in 1998 during the Clinton administration).
² "Putin Agrees [to] Arms Sales to North Korea, The Sunday Times/UK -- "Military sources say the sales, intended to reassert Russian influence in the region, are backed by President Vladimir Putin, who appears to have a rapport with Kim Jong II, North Korea's eccentric dictator."--Mark Franchetti, Moscow.
"China, Russia Intensify Relationship," World Net Daily, "The initial draft of a new, far-reaching pat between Moscow and Beijing was agreed upon April 29, . . .the treaty is 'basically important for shaping a fair, democratic [?!] world order and for stability the world over." -- Toby Westerman.
³ By 2020, the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Capricorn and 2022 (the USA's Pluto Return), what will the USA "be," if she survives in her current form at all? Wide-ranging speculations may be fascinating, but the present frustration remains. We will have to see how Dubya's Saturn and the outer planets manifest.
Mundane Astrology is the branch of astrology that is most difficult to practice. Projecting the "how" and the "what" of planetary manifestations is wide-ranging and intuitive, but limited by the hugeness of the playing field. In natal astrology the playing field is limited to the individual who has more latitude. In world astrology, the astrologer grapples with the collective. In that regard, it is neigh to impossible for one single astrologer to predict with full accuracy the outworking of the collective zeitgeist. -- Starcats
4. The USA, on Thursday, May 3, 2001, was voted off the United Nations' Committee on Human Rights, a subject I will explore in another article. Suffice to say that this shameful blow is the result of Dubya's 1) Callous rejection of the Kyoto Treaty; 2) Missile Defense Shield; 3) Unilateral breaking of the 1972 AMB Treaty; and 4) The USA's failure to make AIDS medications financially affordable to African nations.
5. In mythology, Hades (Pluto) had a magic helmet which, when worn, rendered him invisible.
|
|
