Benazir Bhutto and the Moon-Mars Eclipse

I’m often in a state of slight doubt around astrology, suspecting that if pushed I could make any set of symbols fit around any event or person. But then something happens that makes you realise that astrology does work after all. The death of Benazir Bhutto was, for me, a case in point.

It’s been pretty clear for some time, even without astrology, that she was going to get assassinated. She was very nearly killed within a very short time of arriving back in Pakistan a couple of months ago. She said at the time that she reckoned the country’s Intelligence services were involved, not actively, but rather that they had allowed it to happen.

With any number of Islamists wanting the pro-western Bhutto out of the way, and with the Intelligence services, run by her political rival President Musharraf, also quite happy to see her gone, what chance did she have? She must have known this.

Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi on 21st June 1953. She had Pluto within a ¼ of a degree of the Pakistan Sun, giving her the power (Pluto) to be Leader (Sun), which she was twice.

She had Sun at 29 degrees of Gemini conjunct Mars at 5 Cancer. Pluto by transit is currently opposing her Sun and moving in her Mars. She also has Prog Sun conjunct natal Pluto and moving in on Prog Pluto: ‘Death through Leadership”. Given her situation, any western astrologer would have said, “Look dear, they’re going to get you, if not now, next week, if not this year, next year. It’s not a matter of risk management.” The Oxford and Harvard educated Bhutto clearly did not consult an astrologer – or if she did, maybe it was a Vedic one, who wouldn’t have used Pluto?

With Neptune currently opposing this Prog Sun/Pluto mix, she was either going to find herself the saviour of the nation, or find her leadership hopes dissolving under her. Neptune’s involvement also suggests she will be beatified, seen as the saviour who was cruelly taken away. Her natal Moon conjunct Neptune also gives her this potential to become an Eva Peron or Princess Diana type figure.

Lest any of us get tempted to turn her into too much of a heroine, it is worth remembering the considerable fortune – said to be over a billion dollars - that she and her husband amassed during her 2 periods as leader. There have been ongoing corruption investigations ever since, and if you read her Wikipedia entry, it is clear that the charges against her were not just politically motivated. France, Poland, Switzerland and Spain have all provided documentary evidence against her and her husband. In Switzerland, she was found guilty of money-laundering. And an Asian gold bullion dealer was also alleged to have put bribe money in her husband’s account in return for becoming Pakistan’s sole licensed importer of gold.

Benazir Bhutto had Venus in Taurus square to Pluto. It is well possible that she was greedy and corrupt.

When I heard of her death, my first astrological thought was of the Moon-Mars eclipse that happened at 3 Cancer on Christmas Eve. I’d been wondering in an earlier blog what events might be associated with this eclipse, so now we have one of them. It occurred close to her Sun-Mars midpoint (she was also having a Mars Return), while of course Pluto was opposing. It was this eclipse correlation that made me realise yet again that astrology works.