The Iranian Mars

"Growing talk of Iran attack" was the headline on the BBC article I read yesterday. This one has been off the news since late last year, when a number of US intelligence agencies simultaneously reported that they had ‘high confidence’ that in late 2003 Iran had stopped trying to build nuclear weapons.

I found that claim hard to believe, it was like the reverse of the Iraq WMD claim, which was also hard to believe at the time. And it seems they were connected: the US intelligence agencies were so pissed off with George Bush for the way he used their intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War, that this was payback time. GWB was talking up the need to counter Iranian nuclear ambitions, and this ‘intelligence’ stopped him in his tracks.

The chart I use for Iran is for 1st April 1979 at 3pm in Tehran. This was when the Islamic Republic was proclaimed. The actual revolution took place 2 months earlier when Khomeini arrived in the country, but the April chart seems to work best.


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The most relevant points in the chart are:

(1) Sun in Aries opposite Pluto, which suggests a visionary/warlike leadership (Sun in Aries) that is often engaged in a struggle for power, and which has a need to have external enemies (opposition to Pluto). In recent years, Progressed Mars has been opposite Natal and Progressed Pluto, which well describes the struggle with the US that has been occurring. Prog Mars will be within 1 degree orb of opposing natal Pluto until July 2009.

(2) Mercury-Mars in 8th House Pisces, square to Neptune and trine to Uranus. This describes the secret (8th) weapons programme (Mars) to build a bomb (Uranus), and the unsuccessful attempts to deceive the West about it (square to Neptune).

Natal Mars is at 25.37 Pisces, and for several years Pluto was squaring this Mars. This describes the ongoing crisis with the USA in recent years. The USA, with natal Mars at 21 Gemini squaring the Iranian Mars, is likely always to be engaged in some sort of struggle with the current incarnation of Iran. Indeed, the US also has Mars square to Neptune, with the US Neptune squaring the Iranian Neptune!

So we are not just talking mutual deception. It’s like they both have military dreams/fantasies. The US, for example, sees itself as a protector of liberty in the world, and there is some truth in this (e.g. World War II and the first Gulf War); but it also operates hugely from self-interest and will play as dirty as is necessary to get its own way. (Nothing exceptional about the US in that regard.)

Iran has the fantasy of being a superpower in the Middle East through acquiring nuclear weapons, which of course the major powers – not just the USA – will never allow to happen. With their clashing Neptunes, the Iranian and US military fantasies are not compatible.

From the end of last year, when Pluto began to put some serious distance between itself and its square to the Iranian Mars, the Iranian crisis went quiet. It is only now, with Uranus stationing 3 degrees off a conjunction to that Mars, that the issue has become active again.

In the last few days, for example, the Israeli leader has been making noises about attacking Iran. Last week Barack Obama (who currently has Uranus opposing his natal Mars) told the pro-Israel lobby that if he was President, the US would do everything in its power to stop Iran making nuclear weapons. He emphasised the word 'everything'. And today George Bush is meeting EU leaders in Slovenia, from which a joint warning of further sanctions against Iran is expected.

For the next couple of years, both Uranus and Saturn will be transiting the Iranian Mars. So Iran may well be subject to sudden attack (Uranus) and will feel the pressure to limit (Saturn) its military ambitions.

Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel, is under a lot of political pressure due to corruption allegations. And Bush is in the lame duck phase of his Presidency, with the Iraq fiasco as a legacy. So both have personal political reasons for wanting to attack Iran.

If an attack does occur, it is likely to be after the next stationing of Uranus in November: this is the point at which it will turn direct and begin its approach to an exact conjunction of the Iranian Mars next May.

Between November and January 2008 also makes political sense, because the US election will be over, so an attack could not be seen as an attempt to influence the election. And it also gives Bush the opportunity to add to his legacy (as he sees it.)

Israel has Mars at 28 Leo, which Neptune will begin to oppose next year. Uranus is currently squaring the US Mars at 21 Gemini, and will still be within range next year. So either country could attack. Using Composite Charts, an attack seems most likely from Israel: the Composite Israel/Iran Chart has Angles between 18 and 20 degrees of the mutable signs, which Uranus will be within range of until the end of 2009.

That said, there was an interesting request for funding by George Bush some months ago, as part of the military budget. It wasn't very prominently reported, but it amounted to funds for some 30,000lb bombs. You would only need these if you were trying, for example, to blast your way through thick concrete to deep underground chambers, such as you find at the Iranian nuclear installations.

Interestingly, the US/Iran Composite chart has a Uranus-North Node conjunction at the end of Leo. So does Barack Obama, our Man of Destiny. It suggests that his future is in some deep way tied up with US-Iran relations. And his Mars opposes the Iranian Mars.

By the way, I’m not advocating an attack. I’m just looking at some of the astrology around it. That said, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with the Iranian nuclear installations being taken out.