TIM LYONS’ ASTROLOGICAL VANTAGES AND VIEWPOINTS
PLUTO, CHIRON, AND THE CENTER OF THE PLANET
Tim Lyons – 021124
First, a point of clarification. I have said that Israel and Palestine-as-a-Refugee-State (PARS) have the same horoscope. This doesn’t mean that they share a horoscope, though sometimes it may seem that way, as the fates of the two seem inextricably intertwined. But though the horoscopes are identical, each political entity has its own. Only very rarely do two human beings have identical horoscopes, as even twins generally appear sequentially, even if only by a few minute, so they have different horoscopes. But in the artificial world of nation-states, a world created by human artifice, we can have two entities with precisely the same horoscope: as with the simultaneous establishment of Israel and PARS in the same place.
I had planned, in this and future blog-podcasts, to move away from the political and historical matters I have discussed here and in timlyonsastrologypoliticshistory.com, and to look into what we might call the philosophy and psychology suggested by astrological practice. I still hope to make that move, but world affairs, increasingly troubling and dangerous, have occupied my attention recently. Besides, some people have asked me to comment on current goings-on – and not surprisingly, as transiting (TR) Pluto has moved into Aquarius, a sign associated with collective matters and group dynamics. So I’ve decided to make a few more comments, beginning with the situation in Israel and Palestine.
A few blog-posts ago, just after Hamas’ attack across the Israel border, I said that the conflict and ramifications would go on for quite a while, that we shouldn’t expect a quick resolution. I said this partly because of the movement of transiting (TR) Pluto, but also because of solar arc (SA) Mars and SA Saturn. The astrological view gets corroboration from the extensional world of events. Though many so-called-pundits have said that they see the two-state solution as the most viable, or even as the only one possible at this point, both Israel and PARS, or at least HAMAS (not synonymous with PARS) have rejected that policy. A huge quantity of bad blood must get exhumed, along with some attempt at finding common humanity.
Hamas’ attack took place just before transiting (TR) Mars squared TR Pluto, with TR Mars in the 12th house of the Israel and Palestine horoscopes (IAPHs). The transiting aspect took on added weight partly because Mars and Pluto rule the (Scorpio rising) horoscopes. Mars would conjoin IAPHs ascendant a few days later as Israel began the bombardment of Gaza that has gone on to this day. In the following weeks, TR Mars in Scorpio squared the Leo planets (Moon, Saturn, Pluto, and Mars), opposed the Taurus Sun and conjoined N. Chiron in Scorpio, setting off the powerful fixed T-square in the horoscopes. Thus: conflict in the short run. When TR Mars was still in the 12th, Hamas’ attack qualified as one from “hidden enemies”; once Mars hit the ascendant, things came out in the open.
TR Pluto would go on to square the IAPHs ascendant (ASC) in late January and will do so again in July, September, and December (and, really, the whole period from July through December, as Pluto never gets out of orb). After that series of aspects, TR Pluto will go on, over the never few years, to conjoin the nadir and oppose the natal (N) Leo Moon in 2026-7, though probably felt by 2025. After that, TR Pluto will eventually oppose N Pluto, Saturn, and Mars in Leo, and square the N Sun in Taurus and N Chiron in Scorpio, with the whole series lasting until 2043. Add to all that solar arc (SA) Saturn’s forming conjunction with the ASC, SA Mars’ forming square to N Pluto, and SA Chiron’s conjunction with the nadir (IC), in effect as I write this.
Chiron often symbolizes a wound that either won’t heal or that lies so deep that the healing process must get at something far beneath symptomology. And the nadir, an axis pointing toward the center of the earth, symbolizes, again, something foundational, symbolically connected with both the collective unconscious and the sense of home-ground. The latter has to do, obviously enough, with the woundedness connected to the disputed home-land in Palestine: the Palestinians feel, quite correctly, that the Zionists have taken away their home, turning it into a war zone; the Zionists apparently feel that the area from Jordan to the sea constitutes an ancestral home and a safe refuge, strongly desired after centuries of persecution. The collective unconscious symbolism suggests that the solution to the crisis lies down in the areas of the psyche where we find common ground among all humans, regardless of political, religious, or cultural affiliation.
The mythic Chiron resulted from the union of Saturn (Cronus) and a human woman. Both of his parents abandoned him, though for different reasons, a symbolism with connections to both parties in the present dispute. The myth suggests that Chiron has in him the genes of gods and humans. Chiron eventually, having suffered a wound he couldn’t heal – brought about by one of his own poison arrows, shot, according to one version of the myth, by Hercules, one of his students, for Chiron was the teacher of warriors and a renowned healer – so he gave up the immortality conferred on him through his father’s lineage, exchanging himself for Prometheus, a markedly Uranian figure who had been chained by Zeus to a rock in the (I think) Caucasus Mountains. So Chiron’s activity involves self-sacrifice, being willing to give up on personal insistence. If one can do this, one gives birth to the forces of emancipation and liberation(Prometheus/Uranus).
The symbolism suggests that both sides must give something up, some insistence that they take as integral to their very beings. Both must also admit to the deep wounds that have brought them into conflict: those of Israel and/or the Zionists from centuries of mistreatment by all sorts of people, with the Nazis as prime example; those of the Palestinians also from centuries of mistreatment (because European civilization has for a long time mistreated and mistrusted Arabs and Muslims of all sorts) and from continual and current injuries suffered at the hands of Zionists. And all of this with a deep connection to the home-ground and roots.
Perhaps the above – the deep-rooted healing connected to common humanity – seems impossible to achieve. Certainly the omens don’t seem very propitious. However, some readers may recall something I mentioned (I think) in a previous installment: a study undertaken by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research with the following results (taken from memory):[1] when, in interviews about the Palestine-Israel situation, a majority (memory tells me a significant one) of Palestinian citizens from all walks of life said that if Israelis would admit that they had wronged the Palestinians by taking their land, they (the Palestinians) would feel willing to make some territorial concessions; similarly, a majority of Israeli citizens from (again) all walks of life said that if Palestinians would grant that Israel had a right to exist, they would feel willing to make ome sterritorial concessions. The study suggests that the disputes perhaps have to do not only with land, but with respect and dignity, and that to many of the people involved, the latter may take precedence. If this conclusion still holds true (the study took place well over a decade ago), any solution must involve not only the adjudication of borders, but also a deeper connection to the common humanity of everyone involved. This seems to me connected to the symbolism of the astrological nadir, currently conjoined by SA Chiron and soon to get conjoined by TR Pluto.
More on these and related matters later in future installments.
If you want to see the horoscopes related to this discussion, go to timlyonsastrologypoliticshistory.com for February 12, 2024.
[1] I have a personal connection to this. My brother Terry served, for the last twenty years of his life, as program manager for the AFOSR in Washington DC and thus had much to do with the funding for the research program I mention here. I can’t remember the name of the person who did it. Terry sent me a clipping about it, many years ago, but I can’t seem to locate it. AFOSR Program Manager Receives Louis H. Bauer Founders Award > Wright-Patterson AFB > Article Display
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