September 11th: An Astrological Perspective

By Steven Forrest

Astrologers tend to spend a lot time making gloomy predictions. It's almost a joke around our house: the astrological "apocalypse du jour." That nasty looking August eclipse a while back was one of them. The current opposition of Saturn and Pluto has also generated a lot of fearful press. And of course we've got to give the fear mongers a few points this time.

Probably we are all going to see the event chart for the Trade Tower destruction (9/11/01, Manhattan, "a few minutes before 9 AM") analyzed until we know it better than our own birth charts. Like most disaster charts, it doesn't look all that sinister at first glance, although I'm sure we'll get plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking on it.

The current Saturn/Pluto opposition is definitely serious: we're facing the hard, manifest reality (Saturn) of some deep, dark Plutonian wounds. We can expect those unresolved wounds (Pluto) to crystallize concretely (Saturn); to be "in our faces." But that planetary aspect is in effect over a long period of time. More unique to this particular time frame, Mars is conjunct the Moon's South Node. That does imply war/karma (between brothers - the Third House - the Biblical sons of Abraham!) coming home to roost, and effectively pinpoints this present period. (It also calls our attention forward to April-July '02, when the Nodes cross transiting Saturn and Pluto)

Going further, Saturn's rulership of the South Node leaps to mind, powerfully linking the dominant Saturn/Pluto structure to the underlying pattern of violent karma. Topping it off, the Moon was Void in late Gemini, but within the orbs of opposing Mars. Thus it acted as a trigger.

The strange fact of the Moon being Void usually suggests "nothing will come of this." At first, that seems implausible, but it does support the possibility that investigations prove ultimately inconclusive, and no "satisfying" target of revenge emerges. Another angle, for which I thank my wife Jodie's sharp eyes, is that actions taken under a Void Moon tend to go nowhere - and it was the terrorists themselves who undertook the action. This suggests that, while they succeeded at what they set out to do, in the end the Void Moon prevents them from accomplishing their larger goals. Their deeper aims will come to nothing here.

Pluto and Saturn are conjunct the Third and Ninth cusps (Placidus) respectively, which points to the underlying issue: "religion" (Ninth House) versus the Third House notion of "heresy." The irony here is that both faiths, Judeo-Christianity and Islam, view each other in truly, technically "heretical" terms since they share common "brotherly" roots, but have long since gone into schism. So we are looking at a karmic pattern of religious rigidity, intolerance and judgment (Saturn in Nine) implacably opposed by a "threatened" and thus violent "heresy" - there's Mars and Pluto in the Third.

In my estimation, the Judeo-Christian tradition is symbolized in this chart by Saturn, although one could reason either way. Part of my thinking is that the Ninth House is so dominant, containing Jupiter and Moon. And of course the "West" has had the upper hand for a few centuries, and still basically does. A parallel line of reasoning is that the Mars/Pluto complex in the Third House is a much more natural symbolism for terrorism than what we see in the Ninth. So the two signatures emerge pretty clearly: the West as the Ninth House, the Islamic world as the Third. This has interesting implications, as we will see below.

All of this I believe is accurate enough technical analysis - but at a rather obvious level. I'm actually not very impressed with it. It tells us nothing we didn't already know. We can even add an elegant little twist and observe that the current Saturn/Pluto opposition is forming on the planetary South Node of Uranus, adding even more volatility to the mix. But we know about that volatility already! I might further predict the West will "win," since the general Ninth House symbolism is so strong. Add the fact Mercury, which rules the Ninth cusp, is ambiguously placed: it is rising, but in the Twelfth, suggesting the West's current vulnerability and defeat (Twelfth House), but also an underlying, fundamental strength - Mercury is indubitably conjunct the Ascendant.

Still, all this talk is close to the fortune-telling stuff we are striving to get beyond. It works, but it doesn't inspire or illuminate.

How can we take it further? How can this chart speak to our souls rather than just our minds? The Moon's North Node lies in Cancer, with the Moon itself conjunct the Node, despite being in Gemini. When associated with the North Node, the Moon and Cancer are always indicative of the need for healing. The ancient, karmic pattern of Marsrage driven by religious intolerance and schism needs to be healed. The message of the chart is absolutely clear on that. It says, "What would the Great Mother tell us?" And it goes further: being in the Ninth house, the North Node counsels that we dare to hold to idealism, that we not simply react reflexively. It cautions us especially about reacting according to old engrained karmic patterns of retributive, self-justifying rage, which themselves are the underlying engine driving the whole nightmare. With the north-node-ruling Moon in Gemini, it emphasizes the need for dialog… listening, talking…and, with Jupiter there, faith. The Ninth House is international and crosscultural: broad consensus is needed here, especially if "surgical" military actions occur. Both Jupiter and the Ninth House also correlate with Law. Thus, the notion of legal action, rather than military action, is the higher ground here. The World Court might be involved, for example - as it is now with Slobodon Milosevic.

I feel sick and phony calling all this evil and violence and death we've just witnessed an "opportunity." But it is.

We of course are looking at madness, and full-blown evil. But madness and evil are bred in the human heart by injustice, fear, and above all desperation. My faint prayer is that Spirit speaks to those with their fingers on the triggers of revenge. I hope they hear Spirit saying, "Let this evil stand a while. Let it stare out at the world, unavenged. Let it shame those who perpetrated it, or at least those hanging-in-the-balance souls who applaud it, but who know better deep in their human hearts. Don't blunt the horror of this insane, dark deed with reactive vengeance. Don't repeat the Mars/South Node pattern. Don't make it so easy to forget by helping the world numb itself with more rage."

I promise you, this isn't just hippie babble. I am trying to honor the message of the symbols. If Mars were on the North Node instead of on the South, I'd have a different message - the righteousness of rage, the dharma of fierceness, the need to defend boundaries no matter the price in blood and pain. But Mars is on the South Node, not the North.

Personally, I'd like to add that with my own Mars/Pluto karmic patterning, and present-life Aries Moon, this attitude and interpretation are not easy for me to sustain. I too feel powerfully the gravitational force field of vengeance. I hear myself being "logical" about the "real world." And then I make myself think: where will more violence lead? And it's the easiest question I've ever heard in my life. I realize I am experiencing violent, atavistic emotions, disguised as reason. If violent action is necessary to cut out the tumor of terrorism, let it be measured, internationally-based, and let it aim toward the ideal of Justice, not primeval vengeance disguised as justice.

Contact Steven Forrest through his website: www.stevenforrest.com