Welcome to the COSMIC UPDATE

My COSMIC UPDATES are a way of looking at items and people in the news from an astrological perspective. And while I try to make the text as understandable as possible I realize that some of the astrological jargon baffles the general reader. 

COSMIC UPDATE: 10^th October  2001

Included in this week’s Cosmic Update: 

• The Attack On Afghanistan

Well, we knew it was coming. The phoney war is over and the USA finally responded to Bin Laden’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

On the 7^th October, 9. 25 pm local time Afghanistan, the first bombs in this campaign were dropped on military strongholds around Kabul. Half an hour later missiles reached Jalalabad and Kandahar. At the time of writing a second wave of attacks has taken place on the 8^th, achieving air supremacy for the United States. Ground troupes will no doubt follow.

Shortly after the attacks began Bin Laden affirmed his promise that the USA would know no peace until the Palestinians have their home-land. Clearly, this televised message had been recorded some time before the assault on Afghanistan since Bin Laden was shown speaking in broad daylight while the bombing was going on in the hours of darkness. In this way and in regard to the content of his speech Bin Laden clearly showed that his mark was upon the attacks of the 11^th September. 

In 17^th September’s COSMIC UPDATE I singled out the first week of October as one of the leading contenders for further developments in this ‘New War’.  And while the week of 1^st October saw Venus square both ends of the Saturn- Pluto opposition it took the moon’s conjunction to Saturn on Sunday the 7^th to set the ball rolling.

However, with Mercury currently retrograding, how effective these strikes will be in the long run remains to be seen. And while gaining air supremacy is key to the future success of any campaign in Afghanistan rooting out Bin Laden and removing the Taliban is not going to be achieved in a mere week or two. I also suspect that due to Mercury’s retrogradation that the ministry of disinformation will be at work, so we are likely to be told only a small part of what is going on.

The Astrology of Events

Several times in my Cosmic Updates I have used the expression astrological poetry and I am about to use it again.

The moment the first plane struck the World Trade Centre, Mercury was rising, precisely on the degree of the Ascendant at 14 Libra. (14 degrees of Libra happens to be the USA’s natal Saturn.) At the moment the first wave of missiles hit Kabul, the sun was at 14 degrees of Libra.

The moment the first plane struck the World Trade Centre the MC/IC axis was at 16 degrees Cancer/Capricorn. At the moment the first wave of missiles hit Kabul, Mars was at 16 degrees Capricorn.

The angles of a chart (the Ascendant/descendant axis and the MC/IC axis) are arguably the most important features of any chart. Thus to have both angles of the Twin Towers chart on key points of the bombing of Kabul not only connects these two events but makes, what I refer to as, pure astrological poetry.

And for the rest

At the Libra Ingress (the Autumn Equinox) the moon was at 13 degrees Sagittarius, thereby conjuncting the Pluto end of the Saturn-Pluto opposition. At the moment of the attack on Kabul the moon was at 13 degrees Gemini, thereby conjuncting the Saturn end of the Saturn-Pluto opposition.

12 degrees of Gemini is the Ascendant of the USA.

At the time of the Autumn Equinox in Kabul, Venus was precisely on the Ascendant. Venus and Libra have a peculiar association with war. This sign or this planet is often in the Ascendant at the outbreak of war – and, of course, Libra was rising at the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. Yet Venus is the principle of love, peace and harmony? It is perhaps not so strange that this planet should figure so prominently in war charts when you consider first, that war is the result of the failure of diplomacy and negotiation and second, that a war attempts to right perceived wrongs and establish peace. Just those virtues Libra and Venus personify.

I pointed out in the aforementioned Cosmic Update that the chart of the terrorist attack in New York was a rather ‘good’ chart, hardly consistent with the murder of seven thousand innocent people. And it was somewhat of an epiphany to me when I realized that it was, of course, a brilliant success as far as the terrorists were concerned! It was a highly successful mission. In the same way, the chart of the bombing of Kabul is a pretty ‘good’ horoscope. Gemini rises and the Ascendant forms part of a Grand Trine in air, involving Mercury (the ruler of the chart), Uranus and the Part of Fortune. And for extra punch, the Ascendant of the ‘Kabul attack’ chart is trine the US moon at 27 Aquarius and this same Ascendant is close to the US Mars (21 Gemini). So, hard hit as Bin Laden and the Taliban have been, as far as the US is concerned it was a brilliant success.

Clearly, the Saturn-Pluto opposition is playing a major role in this ‘New War’ and we should therefore closely watch the 2^nd/3^rd of November when this aspect occurs for the second time.

Recommended Reading:

Click To Order

	The Astrologer's Handbook Frances Sakoian, Louis S. Acker
	Planets in Transit Robert Hand
	The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus Erika Cheetham