Iran

I think it is important to have a sense of humour when considering people such as President Ahmadinner-lady of Iran. He is a populist politician who denies both the Holocaust and Israel’s right to exist, who is wilfully confrontational and who is pushing hard for the development of a nuclear capability. I don’t see President Ahmageddon as any different to Hitler. I know once you bring in Hitler it’s usually the sign of a discussion that has lost any sense of proportion, but in Ahmadinejad’s case I think that for once the comparison is apt. I think that under the smiles and popular appeal, there is nothing he would not do.

It is of course hypocritical for the West to denounce countries that want a nuclear capability while having such capabilities itself. But in Ahmadinner-jacket’s case it is different, because he would have no hesitation in using them if he thought he could get away with it, whereas the West would have a great deal of hesitation before using them, and has remarkably managed not to for 64 years. It’s like we’re still stunned from the first time.


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Ahmadinosaur was born 28/10/56, time unknown. He has Sun conjunct Neptune in Scorpio. At its best, this combination has passion, insight, loyalty, imagination and compassion. Maybe in private Ahmajihad does. Maybe, like Hitler, he is in private a vegetarian who likes children. But in public we see this combination at its worst, the snake (Scorpio) who can sway the crowds (Neptune). You cannot trust anything he says. He also has Moon in Leo/Virgo, conjunct Pluto. I think his Moon is more likely to be a grandiose, self-serving Leo, and the conjunction to Pluto ties in with his Sun in Pluto’s sign of Scorpio: he has a hunger for power, and knows how to get it and keep it.

It is interesting that Barack Obama, now his principal foreign opponent, has Sun square Neptune and Moon square Pluto. Their Moons square – possibly a bit widely – and their Suns square, again a bit widely. Their Mars’ oppose (7 degrees).


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As with Bush and bin Laden/Saddam Hussein, the stage is set, astrologically at least, for a personal enmity. Obama and Ahmadinejad have a kind of similarity to their charts that clashes. With Obama’s own Sun-Neptune and Moon-Pluto challenges, Ahmadinejad is a reminder to him of his own shadow side. It is hard not to demonise Ahmadinejad, precisely because he is so demonic. When you demonise someone, you write them off as evil, and no longer see their individuality. It will be interesting to see how, over time, Obama deals with Ahmadinejad, now that he has been ‘re-elected’. It is easy to be conciliatory at the start, like he has been. But power changes people. Obama stepped into the Presidency and the limos as to the manner born. I found it a bit worrying the extent to which he immediately felt at ease. Part of it is because Obama is a natural showman. But also, I don’t think he quite gets what power does to people, and this will probably start to show over time. And a typical way it shows, especially when you’re such a ‘good guy’ like Obama, is to have an enemy ‘out there’ who embodies the evil that needs to be fought. America itself, with its Mars in polarising Gemini, tends to think internationally in terms of good guys and bad guys. The Obama administration seems quite happy to maintain the list of ‘terrorist’ states that the Bush administration dreamt up, having recently threatened to put North Korea back on the list.

There is no doubt that Ahmadinejad, his hand strengthened due to his dodgy re-election, will continue to do his best to provoke America. America’s natural response is to demonise, to ‘clench its fist’ (as it now accuses Iran of doing.) Whether Obama will be able to respond differently remains to be seen. But astrologically, it certainly looks like a challenge for him. The wideness of the squares and oppositions between himself and Ahmajihad, though, leaves room for self-reflection.

With his Sun-Neptune in Scorpio, I have no doubt that Ahmadinejad would not hesitate to fiddle an election, and it seems pretty certain that he did, with some heavily pro-Mousavi areas mysteriously voting in favour of Ahmadinejad. The Libran Mousavi was the moderate candidate, who proved no match for the dirty tactics of the Scorpio Ahmadinejad.

As for Iran itself, I usually use the chart for 1 April 1979, when the Islamic republic was proclaimed. But there is also a chart for 1 Feb 1979, when Khomeini landed in Tehran and the revolution effectively happened. I think it is a bit like the USA: we use the chart for 4th July, when Independence was declared. But legally, it happened 2 days before, when Congress voted for it. The 4th July chart thus becomes a chart for the aspirations and ideals of the people, and the 2 July a chart for the state itself.

I think with Iran we could look at it similarly, but the other way round, if that makes sense. In Iran’s case, the earlier chart represents the aspirations and ideals of the people, when Khomeini returned to Iran and the popular revolution took place. The later chart is for the Islamic state, the country as an institution.


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What we are seeing now in Iran, with the popular protests against the fiddled election, is an expression of the February chart, the will of the people. This chart has Capricorn/Cancer on the MC/IC axis, which describes the wish of the people in 1979 to return to their traditions (Capricorn), to the past (Cancer) after the forced pace of westernisation of the Shah’s regime.

With this MC/IC axis being at 2.47 Cap/Cancer, Pluto is of course crossing it this year. So the will of the people is undergoing a deep change. Many Iranians no longer want to be Capricorn/Cancer in its narrow, fundamentalist sense. Islam has a long liberal history (as well as a long fundamentalist history), and the protests against the election are not just about the fact that it was fiddled, but also of a desire to return to a more liberal Islam, which is just as Capricorn/Cancer as fundamentalist Islam.

Because these protests are occurring under a Pluto transit, you can be sure that this wave of popular feeling is not going to go away. The Iranians have done it before with the Shah, so they could do it again with Ahmadinejad, especially as he does not have supreme power; this lies with the clergy, and they have declared the election result to be ‘provisional’ in the face of the popular protests. Since writing this, the mullahs have gone further and suggested there may be a recount.


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The chart for the state itself has Mars at 25.37 Pisces, which Uranus will be conjoining until next February. Uranus-Mars is the perfect combination for violent (Mars) protest (Uranus), so we can expect to see it continue for some time yet. If you put this together with the Pluto transit, and Saturn's involvement as well through its ongoing opposition to Uranus, it is possible that Ahmadinejad could be removed from power. That would mean a less confrontational Iran, which could only help with the Middle East peace process. But even a ‘moderate’ Iran would keep its nuclear ambitions and its opposition to the US, and if we were in their place we would probably do the same. So Iran will continue to be a ‘problem’ for the West whatever happens; it will just go about it in a less confrontational way if there is a more moderate President.

Pluto is currently transforming and empowering the wishes of the people of Iran (Feb Chart); in 2 years Pluto will begin to square the Sun of the April chart, the state itself. The Sun is the leadership, so we can see a process here: the popular feeling for a more liberal state that we are seeing now is likely to lead to a change in the type of leadership in 2 to 4 years time.