THE PRESIDENT'S MARS IS MISSING! (AND HIS SATURN, NEPTUNE, MERCURY AND PLUTO)

Gordon Brown has managed to back the UK off from the US Iraq policy with deadly timing, exactly as Bush’s position on Iraq is crumbling again, this time with a report on Iraq by the White House itself that struggles to find any hope for the conflict. What Gordon Brown has done is to get a couple of junior ministers separately to talk publicly about relations with the US, in a way that suggests there might be a change. Then in the resulting press furore, senior ministers march in and go “Oh no no no no no, that wasn’t what was meant at all!”

Again Brown has done something I agree with, and his capacity for political manoeuvring has served the British well. It is all in preparation for a visit by himself to the US in a couple of weeks. And it begins to bring to an end the national humiliation of the Blair-Bush years, in which the UK was subservient to the US administration, and a very bad one at that. So thank you Mr Brown!

Mr Bush’s position has been crumbling not just because of the White House report, but because more Republican Congressmen are coming out against the war. The Democrats on their own have the numbers to block funding for the war, but then they would be seen as the ones who lost the war. The more Republicans they can get on board, the more politically possible it becomes for them to start to bring the war to an end.

Mr Bush’s Mars is under pressure from Saturn. Like his natal Saturn and Neptune, it is unaspected. His Mercury conjunct Pluto is also unaspected. It is not always clear what to make of unaspected planets, but in principle it means that the planet concerned tends to operate independently of the rest of the chart, that aspects of the personality operate autonomously. Or that they don’t get a look-in. In Bush’s case, because neither the Sun nor Moon are involved, we are not talking about a fundamentally split personality, just sides of him - voices in his head? – that go their own way. When an unaspected planet does go its own way, it can be quite powerful, because it is not reined in by the other planets.

We could argue that Bush’s unaspected Saturn made it hard for him to give shape to his life in his earlier years: Saturn didn’t get a look-in. It is in the 12th House, the House of ‘self-undoing’, and having had a good run with his Saturn, he is now faced with political disaster. And it is all his own doing – George Bush is not an unlucky man at all, as his natal Jupiter shows. He has had a lot of luck, but he has misused it.

We could also argue that his unaspected Neptune makes him susceptible to delusion. He may, for example, think he hears the voice of God speaking through him, and the unaspected nature of Neptune means the rest of his personality is not able to get involved and question it. It could also describe the inability to control his drinking of his earlier years.

Mercury-Pluto unaspected (on the ASC) means he can be taken over by, and give voice to the unconscious of the nation, to its darkest fears, to it’s most unpleasant attributes. Hitler, with his unaspected Neptune-Pluto, also did this. Bush’s Pluto is also ‘out of bounds’, which makes it even more powerful.

And then there is Mars. How the hell do you manage to invade a country and hardly have a clue what you are going to do afterwards? This is autonomous Mars: it is the ‘Top-Gun’ moment that matters. It’s like those stickers that say ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ It’s easy to buy a dog, or conquer a much weaker country. The real work comes afterwards, and this is something that children – and less-than-grown-up adults – do not take into account.

If you look at GWB’s life, the transits to Mars have played a very important role. You could argue that with natal Sun square to Chiron and natal Moon conjunct Chiron, the centre of his personality is so damaged that his unaspected planets, as autonomous sub-personalities, have played an unusually large role. Hence the importance of the transits to Mars.

His natal Mars is at 9.18 Virgo. Neptune squared his Mars in 1974, in the middle of his alcoholic period, and sextiled it in 1987, as he was emerging from his alcoholic period.

Pluto squared his Mars in 1999, as he was successfully running for Presidency.

Uranus opposed his Mars in 2005/6 when, having won his second term as President, it all suddenly began to unravel for him due to the Iraq War.

Then there are the transits from Saturn, of which we are about to see a conjunction. Bush first stood for Congress (unsuccessfully) in 1978, as Saturn conjoined his Mars. In 1986, under the square, his failure as a businessman became apparent as he sold his shares in Spectrum for a loss. In 1994, under the opposition, he won the election for Governor of Texas. In 2001, under the square, we had 9/11 and Bush finding his political purpose as President.

This autumn Saturn will come within half a degree of his Mars, and finally cross it in August 2008. It will complete the cycle that began with failure in 1978 and 1986, took him to triumph in 1994 and 2001, and looks like ending in failure again over the next year as his Iraq policy unravels. And it is Saturn: it is all his own doing, he has earned every bit of what is currently happening to him politically. All the previous hard Saturn transits to his Mars have been turning points in his life, so there is no reason to suppose that this one will not also be.

And because it is Saturn, it suggests he will be ACCOUNTABLE. His big hope has been to play for time over Iraq, let the next President deal with it, and then blame him for losing the War. I’ve been hoping for a long time that he wouldn’t get away with it, and now it’s looking to me like he won’t. Not only does Bush have Saturn conjoining his Mars for the next year, but Neptune will continue to oppose his Venus, dissolving his popularity (Venus) even further, and Uranus will be squaring his Node at 19 Gemini: Pluto opposed this point as the Iraq War began, so it probably means unexpected and unwelcome developments for Bush around Iraq.

On top of this, Pluto will from this autumn begin squaring the Iraq War Sun at 29 Pisces, suggesting to me that the US will effectively (though maybe not overtly) admit defeat over Iraq. I could probably find other astrological indicators as well, but I think the point is made. It looks to me that from this autumn we are going to see the US going into reverse over Iraq, and accountability – and unprecedented political meltdown – for George Bush.

I think the chart for the US government (rather than the country as a whole) is more accurately reflected by the chart for 2nd July 1776 (rather than 4th July), when the crucial vote for Independence was taken, and an independent government became active. If we take the cautiously presented time of 4pm, this gives an MC – the Presidency – at 9.54 Virgo, very close to Bush’s Mars. Saturn will also be conjoining this point over the next year, suggesting that the accountability of the Presidency itself, and the limits of its power, will also be up for discussion.