A big topic in the national dialogue as I write this, a few days before the first Saturn-Pluto square, is the tragedy that occurred on November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, the largest military base in the U.S.
I heard journalist Dar Jamal several weeks ago when he came to Ashland on a tour for his new book about conditions in the very overstretched U.S. military. The U.S. Sibly progressed Mars (which turned retrograde for the first time in the nation’s history in 2006) is still on the degree of its station, i.e., 18° Libra.
The accused man is a major in the Army and a psychiatrist specializing in treating soldiers returning from combat. The symbolism of progressed Mars in the nation’s horoscope manifesting as aggression from a military officer towards his own kind could not be more poignant.
We know the U.S. horoscope is under tremendous stress: transiting Saturn at 1° Libra is conjunct the Sibly Midheaven, and the square to transiting Pluto is nearly exact.
The earliest news reports mentioned the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder amongst soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom are being deployed again and again. At Fort Hood alone, there are 10 suicides a month. The conversation has quickly moved from a focus on the possible mental illness of the accused to a heated media debate on terrorism and Islam.
The chart for the moment of the terrible incident has the Chiron, Neptune, and Jupiter conjunction on the Ascendant at the location.
The transiting Moon is at 22° Gemini square to Uranus and conjunct the Sibly Mars at 22° Gemini. The country is both rattled and sad: The closest aspect in the Sibly progressed chart at the incident is the progressed Moon at 14°48’ Virgo semi-sextile to natal Saturn at 14°48’ Libra. (This was exact November 9.)
As a signature of Chiron, Neptune, and Jupiter on the Ascendant at Fort Hood, perhaps a result of this terrible incident may be an extended national conversation about the need for increasing mental health care amongst the military.
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Asteroids fill in some of the gaps for the shooting. Jupiter (religious beliefs, political philosophy)at the Ascendant is traveling with Osiris (Egyptian god of the dead),Damocles (the unseen doom hanging over one’s head), and Requiem (the funeral mass) at 17, 16 and 12 Aquarius, all in the Twelfth House of hidden enemies. TNO Ixion, named for the first murderer in Greek mythology, is elevated in the Tenth at 14 Sag, squaring Hasan’s (DOB 9/8/70) 15 Virgo Sun, and exactly trine Atropos the Cutter, named for the Fate who severs the thread of life at death, just under the Descendant at 14 Leo, in the Sixth House of military personnel, squared the exact Sun/Mercury conjunction, which is also conjoined by Apophis at 13 Scorpio, named for the Egyptian deity personifying pure evil, and these conjunct Hasan’s natal Osiris at 12 Scorpio. Natally, Hasan has an exact triple conjunction of Jupiter, Ixion, and Icarus all at 3 Scorpio, on the Quasar at 4 Scorpio, combining politics/religion with murderous acts and rash, reckless behavior, spotlighted by the Quasar which brings prominence or notoriety. There’s more, but those are the highlights.
Hi Alex,
Those asteroids are so amazing…
Thank you for adding so much to the picture…
I think the final paragraph misses the point entirely. Instead of providing more mental health services to the military, let us fix our gaze a bit deeper. That is, let us look at the fact that continuous, years-long acts of aggression by our country on others is taking it’s toll on the hearts and minds of american soldiers – the canaries in the coal mine. What is being revealed here, through this criminal act of murder, is the larger institutional insanity by which americans are being led around by the nose. The psychic wounding of the people by that larger insanity is being revealed at this time. This singular act is born of the same dynamics occurring in places of abusive power far larger than the individual who has enacted this particular symptom (violence) of the larger whole. “As above, so below. As within, so without.” The horror we feel here on our own soil is a reflection of the horrors we have perpetrated upon others in foreign lands. It will continue and grow until we wake up and understand the lessons of the heavens.
Hello AF,
I do agree with your eloquent assessment of the US empire..
I was merely making one point about the particular symbolism of Chiron ascending at the moment of the Fort Hood incident in relationship to the healing, wounding principle..and the immediate mental health debate..
I realize the issues are deeper and longer and more complex, and, as I said, you wrote sensitively about the bigger picture…
Thanks for contributing..
Here’s a good (non-astrological) article about the conversation above:
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