The War Room
December 14, 2001
Sagittarius Eclipse

The Headlines

U.S. officials: Al Qaeda protecting something

Al Qaeda fighters trapped between the caves and the canyons around Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan are battling Friday as if they're protecting something valuable, according to U.S. officials who openly speculated that they may be protecting Osama bin Laden. CNN Online

Bin Laden Tape Has People Talking

"we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. . . . I was the most optimistic of them all. . . . I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for." CNN Transcript

Cabinet declares Arafat 'irrelevant'

By Herb Keinon

Israel yesterday declared that Yasser Arafat is no longer "relevant," and determined that it will no longer have anything to do with him. Jerusalem Post

"The asteroid Icarus (flying too high) is at 22 Sagittarius in Arafat's natal chart. December 14th's Solar Eclipse will activate not only Icarus, but Arafat's natal Moon at 22 Taurus and his progressed 4th house (endings) cusp at 21 Sagittarius. What makes this more serious is that Arafat's Solar Arc directed Uranus and Pallas are at 21 Gemini which opposes the upcoming eclipse Sun and Moon and conjoins his progressed Midheaven! Arafat's progressed Saturn is at 27 Sagittarius, his progressed part of death. " Arafat by Starcats, October 20, 2001

Starcats' Commentary, December 14, 2001

It's a South Node Solar Eclipse -- finishing up old business. An eclipse wrought from Mutable fire -- changeable; fluid; shape shifting. But what gets "earthed?" Chiron does it through Saturn ruled Capricorn in Winter Solstice Degree.

Chiron opposes the Sun's summer solstice point [0 Cancer]. High noon for the Solar year marks the USA's birthday, W's birthday, and in 2001 a Lunar Eclipse.¹

The Asteroid Pallas Athena at 8 Capricorn now begins earthing new government strategies. The Lunar Eclipse at 8 Cancer/Capricorn of December 30 resonates with Afghanistan's 6 month Interim Government set for installation on December 22 -- the winter solstice.

The Sun at 0 Capricorn will "remember" today's Eclipse Chiron and will resonate to the dark music of Summer 2000 and its fateful Lunar eclipse. And the USA's Solar Return. Hamid Karzai's, Afghanistan's Interim Prime Minister has his birth Sun at 2 Capricorn. It crosses the threshold on December 22 and celebrates his Solar Return on December 24. Karzai's solid, Saturn ruled Sun holds the promise of commitment and stability. His natal Saturn at 18 Sagittarius was crossed by the Sun on December 10th -- five days after the Interim Government Agreement was signed in Bonn, Germany.

Saturn, Pallas and Chiron (and December 30th's eclipse) hint at the harshness of winter in Afghanistan, the nation's poverty, and the severity of winter famine. With Saturn retrograde until the first week of February 2002, the damage done over the last six years by the Taliban and OBL's Al Qaeda forces will continue unabated. The depth of the tragedy will not be fully disclosed until (perhaps) early March 2002. Jupiter will achieve direct motion. Since Saturn and Jupiter are the two chronocrators (timers) that "manifest" on the level of "earth," the two in retrograde status delay, delay, delay. Mercury reaches 0 Capricorn on Saturday, December 15th. It conjoins Chiron and Pallas bringing news of great damage from the cities of Qandahar, Kabul, and from the Mountains of Tora Bora. As I write, rumors of OBL's entrapment in the mountains of the Tora Bora region may signal his last hours alive. If the March birthdate for OBL is accurate [See bin Laden], today's eclipse squares his Pisces stellium. Pluto is on his Saturn. Mercury conjoins his death loving Pluto on Regulus. His Pluto is conjunct Juno. Perhaps OBL marries death. Maybe this is it.

The action escalates in Afghanistan just as the Eclipse Sun-Moon opposes the USA's natal Mars at 21 Gemini in its 7th house of enemies. The eclipse Ascendant for Washington, DC at 8 Gemini (and Eclipse part of Fortune) conjoins the USA's natal Uranus. This, with Eclipse Sun/Moon sextiling Eclipse Uranus promises a roller coaster ride and "an opportunity" to use "surprise" innovative tactics against OBL. Retrograde Saturn hovers over these points which leads me to believe that whatever is happening in Tora Bora will have to be done again. And again. Also that "victory" may also be spoiled by the unforeseen (Eclipse Asc conjoined to USA natal Uranus). The USA's third house Aquarian Moon is in the degree of the Eclipse Lunar Nodes at 27 Gemini/Sagittarius. So is the USA's natal Pluto at 27 Capricorn. This accords well with the release of the OBL tape on December 13th. Hannah Arendt spoke of "The banality of evil," in connection with Adolph Hitler. The OBL tape, with the fawning Shaykh -- a shameless sycophant -- was nauseating.

The eclipse Sun/Moon in opposition to USA Mars is a T-square to USA Neptune. Virgoan Neptune is the release point and it has been under pain of square from transiting Mercury in Sagittarius. Rumors of renewed terrorist hits against the USA (bioterrorism) at the close of Ramadan (and in reprisal for the death of OBL) jack up the ante worldwide at Hanukkah and Christmas. The heat is on the Bush Administration for the manner in which it will prosecute Zacarias Moussaoui and the American Taliban, John Walker Lindh. Attorney General Ashcroft, in his paranoia, keeps refusing the meds cart when it comes around. Tribunals and tribulations rule the winter solstice and Neptune promises that all will remain uncertain.

And so we sit glued to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox (if you can stand it). Waiting (Saturn retrograde) for news certain that the first leg of the dark journey has been completed. We wait. We wonder. And we grieve.

The Eclipse Sabian Symbols

The USA's Ascendant

*** SAGITTARIUS 13 ***
A WIDOW'S PAST IS BROUGHT TO LIGHT.

You may find that your past catches up with you at this time. Although you are in a reasonably sympathetic position in the eyes of those around you, you may not like what is being revealed. Unveiling and exposing - or creating a new and vibrant beginning. Getting rid of yesterday's darknesses. Looking back to revision attitudes. Leaving oneself free for new opportunities. If negative - old stories that should be forgotten.

Eclipse Degree

*** SAGITTARIUS 23 ***
IMMIGRANTS ENTERING A NEW COUNTRY. This is a time of possibility and hope for better things and a new way of life. You may find that you are prepared to venture into new territory for the promise it offers. There may need to be adjustments about the way one communicates one's thoughts and ideas - be receptive to this new way of life and you'll learn much. Reorientation of self-hood. If negative - entering into new situations with inflexible traditions. Throwing away the known in pursuit of the unknown. Linda Hill's Sabian Symbol Oracle

The Eclipse Fixed Stars

Sun/Moon Conjunct RasAlhague

Influence of constellation: "It is said to give a passionate, blindly good-hearted, wasteful and easily seduced nature, together with little happiness, unseen dangers, enmity, strife and slander. Pliny said that it occasioned much mortality by poisoning. This constellation has also been called Aesculapius and held to rule medicines. By the Kabalists it is associated with the Hebrew letter Oin and the 16th Tarot Trump, The Lightning Struck Tower". (Robson).

General influence of the star: According to Ptolemy it is of the nature of Saturn and Venus; and, to Alvidas, of Jupiter and Mercury in sextile to Mars. It gives misfortune through women, perverted tastes and mental depravity. (Robson).

It has a Saturn like character, and some of the undesirable Venus qualities are also present. Connected with these are Neptunian tendencies, making the native especially prone to infectious contamination caused by toxins. People thus influenced are easy going in the use of medical drugs, hallucinatory drugs stimulating foodstuffs, too much good living and overindulgence in tobacco and alcohol. There is danger of insect bites, snakebites or assault from infuriated animals or rabies smitten dogs. If conjunct the Moon, Mars, or Neptune, the native is very prone to infections in general and to epidemic infections. Besides the lower emanations, there are supposedly higher influences attributed to this star, 'though only very few people are able to attune themselves to these influences'. (Ebertin). Anne Wright's Fixed Stars

Mercuryy Conjunct Acumen

Influence of the constellation: The Scorpion is associated with the Hebrew letter Oin and the 16th Tarot Trump "The Lightning-Struck Tower". (Robson).

General influence of the star: It effects the eyesight and causes blindness of one or both eyes, if in conjunction with an afflicted luminary or in conjunction with a malefic that afflicts the luminaries. The opposition seems to be equally important. (Robson).

Etymology: Isaac Mozeson author of The Word says about Acumen:

It means sting in Latin, smarts in English. [K]HaKHMaH means smart in Hebrew. Either way, it smarts (hurts). Beyond other things said about the sting root in Indo-European and Edenic, QaM means an enemy, or literally one who rises up against you.

This star along with Aculeus has a notorious reputation in astrology as 'blind stars' or stars associated with eyesight problems. These stars shows up a negative Mars-Moon quality in people who have them poorly aspected, with a tendency towards a morbid outlook, seeing the worst rather than the best in everything. If their religious views are affected, as so often with anything in Sagittarius, there is a tendency to be either the 'hellfire and damnation brigade' or to take up a fierce anti-religious and even anti-God stance. But at their best, well aspected, they can have very sharp minds and a perception well above average as though, perhaps 'blind' to what we see and take for granted, they see what we do not, at levels where eyesight does not reach. Not for nothing has the word Acumen come down to us as a term for a sharp mind. (Dr. Eric Morse). Anne Wright's Fixed Stars

Footnotes

¹ Three Saturn-Uranus squares (in 2000) culminated in T-Square to warring Mars in house 7 of Bush's Inauguration chart. The USA's Solar Return Ascendant (July, 2001) was 1 Gemini, the position of Inauguration Jihad-Jupiter (retrograde) in house 1. Solar Return Venus at 29 Taurus (July, 2001) conjoined Alcyone, the fixed star of great tragedy and great grief. The USA's 225th birthday chart was jacked up by the Cancer Ingress, the eclipse of July 5th, and George W. Bush's Solar Return. See Starcats' 9/18/01 Prelude.