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| A member of the Free Syrian Army, an avatar of Pluto wearing his helmet of invisibility. |
This was written by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in the 1919 in the aftermath of World War 1 and the Easter Rising in Ireland. As well as being a poet, Yeats was a visionary and a mystic. Read this piece carefully, because it could not be more appropriate to the current situation in Syria.
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I have two charts for Syria: one for independence from France in 1944 and one for this regime, which came to power under Hafiz al Assad, the current leader's father, in 1970 after years of political turmoil. It's clear at a glance that the 1944 chart is accurate. Syria's Sun is at 9° Capricorn, the very degree at which Pluto has been sitting for so long.
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| January 1, 1944, 12;01 AM. Syrian Indpendence from France |
When a heavy planet stations retrograde on any point in a chart it brings intensity and focus to the issues related to the planet or angle. When the heavy planet happens to be Pluto, which is naturally concentrating and intense, the pressure is enormous. The core identity of the whole country is being put under pressure.
The only sliver of good news in this is that this indicates that the people in power, the Assads, are feeling the pressure too.
Bashar al-Assad was born in 1965, so he has the very tight generational Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo natally. What is more that powerful pair conjuncts his Sun. He may well have internalised Pluto-Uranus, which can be a very cruel combination, and in Virgo it has special vicious efficiency. He was never going to roll over and let the rebels win. He will fight ferociously, ruthlessly to stay in power.
Mars has been transiting through Virgo since the end of 2011, turning retrograde in mid-January just before things started to get really nasty. As I've said before here, the attacks on the Syrian population by the government are a Mars in Virgo style "clean up".
What makes Assad a particularly ruthless opponent is the fact that he feels himself to be the victim in all this (Chiron in Pisces, and possibly the Moon), and this is fuelling his fear, Saturn also in Pisces and directly opposed by the Sun-Uranus-Pluto. He has seen and learned from what happened to Saddam Hussein and Gaddaffi. This is already a fight to the death unless he can find a safe haven. There is some potential for this as Saturn crosses his natal Venus (last week retrograde and again in September).
Right now, Jupiter is opposing Assad's potentially fanatical Neptune-Mars and unrealistic conjunction in intense and militaristic Scorpio. And in the regime's chart, Jupiter will be opposing all those planets on the Scorpio ascendant and conjunct the Saturn-Moon. This means that Syria's enemies are likely to be strengthened.
Let us pray for as many ceasefires as possible, because this is a long, drawn-out struggle. I really hate to be pessimistic, but it seems to me there is a strong potential for civil war, whether Assad himself stays or goes. If the international community does not contain Syria, the blood-dimmed tide could roll over the whole region.
The only sliver of good news in this is that this indicates that the people in power, the Assads, are feeling the pressure too.
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| Assad's Coup, Nov 13, 1970. 6:08 AM |
Mars has been transiting through Virgo since the end of 2011, turning retrograde in mid-January just before things started to get really nasty. As I've said before here, the attacks on the Syrian population by the government are a Mars in Virgo style "clean up".
What makes Assad a particularly ruthless opponent is the fact that he feels himself to be the victim in all this (Chiron in Pisces, and possibly the Moon), and this is fuelling his fear, Saturn also in Pisces and directly opposed by the Sun-Uranus-Pluto. He has seen and learned from what happened to Saddam Hussein and Gaddaffi. This is already a fight to the death unless he can find a safe haven. There is some potential for this as Saturn crosses his natal Venus (last week retrograde and again in September).
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| Time is unknown. |
Right now, Jupiter is opposing Assad's potentially fanatical Neptune-Mars and unrealistic conjunction in intense and militaristic Scorpio. And in the regime's chart, Jupiter will be opposing all those planets on the Scorpio ascendant and conjunct the Saturn-Moon. This means that Syria's enemies are likely to be strengthened.
Let us pray for as many ceasefires as possible, because this is a long, drawn-out struggle. I really hate to be pessimistic, but it seems to me there is a strong potential for civil war, whether Assad himself stays or goes. If the international community does not contain Syria, the blood-dimmed tide could roll over the whole region.
For a more detailed look at the Syrian charts, click here.
For more on the massacres earlier this year, click here.
