HERE IS AN ARTICLE I WROTE THAT WAS PUBLISHED IN THE MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER IN EARLY 2005. IN IT I USED THE US SIBLY CHART (SAG RISING), THOUGH IN A BLOG A FEW WEEKS AGO I PROMOTED THE US GEMINI RISING CHART - WHICH IS AT 8 DEGREES, AND IMMEDIATELY MAKES BETTER SENSE OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH!
The American Mars
By Dharmaruci
In 1891, Neptune conjoined Pluto at 8° Gemini, marking the beginning of a new 500-year era whose nature may become clearer to us in another century or so. This conjunction was just four degrees from the U.S. (Sibly) Descendant at 12° Gemini — perhaps indicating the pervasive influence the United States would have on other countries (Descendant) in this new era. Astrologically, what has come to be called the American Century began in the 1890s as first Neptune and then Pluto crossed the U.S. Descendant.
A few years after this, Neptune (in 1898) and then Pluto (in 1904) passed over the U.S. 7th-house Mars at 21°23^ Gemini, heralding the arrival of the U.S. as a world military power. Until that time, America had had a tradition of isolationism going back to George Washington’s warning, in his Farewell Address, against getting embroiled in foreign quarrels. Despite the persistence of this attitude well into the 20th century (which played a major part in the timing of America’s entry into World War II), the Neptune and Pluto transits nevertheless suggest a fundamental change in the U.S. attitude toward foreign military involvement from the start of the 20th century.
This change seems to have happened bang on cue: Neptune conjoined the U.S. Mars in 1898, the same year as the Spanish-American War, which resulted in the U.S. gaining its first overseas colonies (Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines) — just before Pluto conjoined the U.S. Mars in 1904. The U.S. had acquired imperial ambitions, and during the next 25 years, it intervened in Latin America, both militarily and commercially.
Therefore, since the time of its transformation by the Neptune and Pluto transits, the American Mars can be seen as a tool of American imperial ambitions. These transits, as conjunctions, represent the beginning of a whole new cycle that still has quite a while to run.
The Faces of Mars
The U.S. Mars is in Gemini. This sign can be understood in terms of "light twin" and "dark twin," and an aware individual will make some sort of attempt to bring the two together. The U.S., however, is notable for dividing the world into good and evil, with the U.S. naturally on the side of "good" — and "evil" being somewhere else, "out there." Mars is also in the 7th house, a good place for projecting evil onto the Other. (The U.S. Descendant in Gemini also describes this phenomenon; the Descendant and 7th-house Mars reflect many of the same American characteristics, so they should be considered together.) Most countries tend to demonise their opponents in time of war, but the U.S. seems to have a psychological need for a demonic opponent on an ongoing basis. For many years, Communism provided this outlet. After the collapse of the USSR, there was no obvious opponent, and the U.S. appeared to turn on itself for a while, with the rise of paramilitary organisations within the country that were opposed to an alleged government conspiracy to control the population. This movement resulted in violent events such as the Oklahoma City bombing. The impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 over a relatively minor matter — after a witch hunt by the neoconservatives (who are now in power, of course) — could also be seen as the country turning on itself, losing faith in itself and finding imaginary demons within its boundaries. After September 11, 2001, the U.S. at last identified a new demonic opponent in the Islamic jihadists, and it is now fighting them through its War on Terror. And the paramilitary organisations within the U.S. have all but disappeared from view.
That said, when the US has identified a worthwhile demon outside the country, it has also tended to hunt for it within: hence the Macarthy anti-communist witch hunts in the early 1950s, around the same time as the Korean War; and the current search for terrorist cells within the US as part of the ‘War on Terror’. Both have had a fantastical, paranoid quality to them, with little in the way of concrete, verifiable results. And both have taken place under Pluto-Mars transits (see later).
The U.S. Mars is also square to natal 9th-house Neptune at 22°25^ Virgo, which was also activated by the 1898–1904 transits. Neptune, we could say, spiritualises and intensifies the initial division of the world into good and evil; thus, the U.S. considers itself to be on a God-given mission to save the world from the evil "out there." And there is frequently an ostensible redemptive aspect to America’s reasons for engaging in war: WWII was fought to save Europe from Hitler (and Stalin); the Korean and Vietnam wars were to save those countries (and the "Free World") from Communism; and the Gulf War, to save Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. I think that, to some extent Neptune really was redemptive in those cases. But clearly, other motives come into play that are often obvious to outsiders but apparently not to most Americans (tricky Gemini and even trickier Neptune). A classic recent example: People were led to believe, as grounds for the war on Iraq, that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, even though many people knew that this was not true. That was just one instance within the layers of deception leading up to the Iraq War — what Senator Edward Kennedy called a “fraud dreamt up in Texas.”
The United Kingdom, where I live, has a different character from that of the U.S.; it has neither the ongoing need for a demonic opponent nor the urge to be the world’s Redeemer. But Prime Minister Tony Blair, like the U.S., has Mars in Gemini (in his case, on the Ascendant); and since becoming PM in 1997, he has been in the throes of a series of major Neptune transits – to his Capricorn MC, his Aquarius Moon and currently to his Taurus Sun. So, much to the bemusement — and anger — of many Britons, Tony Blair has been able to throw himself behind the war efforts of an American government that ostensibly comes from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Many Britons refer to the conflict in Iraq as "Blair’s War."
Neptune, of course, is also about oil, so the U.S. natal Mars squaring Neptune suggests that American wars, in the current age, will tend to have a lot to do with oil. But because Neptune is involved and because the aspect is a square, this will not be obvious. Neptune also represents water, so we may see a similar situation arising over water shortages as these kick in over the next century. Canada has huge reserves of fresh water. Will the Canadians, too, be suspected of harbouring weapons of mass destruction?
Uranus is at 9° Gemini in the U.S. chart, conjunct the Descendant; this seems to reflect the notion that America is bringing “freedom” to the world. George W. Bush uses this term like a mantra to describe U.S. action in Iraq. Uranus has its tyrannical side, so the U.S. frequently ends up in the paradoxical situation of attempting to impose “freedom” (i.e., their own system of government) on other countries. Sometimes, this has good results (e.g., Japan at the end of WWII), and sometimes it is blind and inappropriate — as in Iraq, which has no tradition of "democracy" and, according to both common sense and astrology, seems likely to end up as a fundamentalist Islamic state. The chart for the handover of power in Iraq (see Chart 2) has a Jupiter–Pluto square, which could reflect the fundamentalism of both the current U.S. administration and the Islamic jihadists.
Even though the idea of George W. Bush bringing “freedom” to other countries might sound risible, it is worth remembering that there are some remarkable freedoms in the U.S. (which has the Moon in Aquarius, as well as Uranus on the Descendant). On 15 Feb 2003, for example, with transiting Sun and Uranus in Aquarius conjunct the US Moon, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in New York against the coming war in Iraq, despite the best efforts of the NYPD to get it stopped. This was just one protest among many at that time. And, of course, Michael Moore's anti-Bush film, Fahrenheit 9/11, has been hugely successful in the US. In modern democracies we take such freedoms for granted, but historically, there have not been many governments — or governmental systems — that would have tolerated such levels of criticism. Such tolerance soon disappears when genuine survival issues are at stake. Who knows how long our present freedoms will last?
The Mars–Pluto Cycle
Both Neptune and Pluto conjoined the U.S. Mars a little more than 100 years ago, but the subsequent transits of Pluto to the U.S. Mars have the clearest correspondence in terms of wars. This is the particular meaning of Mars that I am examining here. Below is a table of Pluto transits to the U.S. Mars and the corresponding wars:
Pluto Transit Date War (Date)
Conjunction 1904–06 Start of U.S. imperialism
(after Spanish-American War in 1898)
Sextile 1951–52 Korean War (1950–53)
Square 1967–68 Vietnam War (1961–75)
Trine 1979–80
Quincunx 1991–92 Gulf War (1990–91)
Opposition 2004 Iraq War (2003– )
As can be seen from the table, there was only one major aspect — the trine — when a war didn’t happen, though perhaps a case could be made for including the Iran hostage crisis, which began in late 1979. Clearly, the U.S. Mars is very sensitive to Pluto transits. And the relevant war often starts in the immediate run-up to the transit. So, what are these transits about?
I want to look at the three biggest conflicts: the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars, which correspond to the sextile, square, and opposition, respectively, of Pluto to the U.S. Mars. We are discussing a cycle here, as Pluto moves out from the conjunction of 1904. With the current opposition, it has reached the halfway point, farthest away from the conjunction.
If we were talking about a reasonably aware individual, we would probably see some sort of progress over this period in the expression of that person’s Mars. We are talking about a country, however, which is a very different thing. Countries do not necessarily learn over time, if only because their leaders change and the learning process has to start all over again. This is particularly true in the case of democracies, whose leadership changes every few years. (Apparently, the old Communist leaders used to complain that, just as they were getting to know a Western leader, there would be a new one!)
I think we can see the U.S. Pluto–Mars cycle in terms of the country learning (or not learning) the lessons of empire from a military point of view. With the Korean and Vietnam wars, the U.S. wanted to stop the spread of Communism and to promote its own democratic system, for better or worse. In the Korean War, the northern communists had overrun virtually the whole of the south; very quickly, America managed not just to reverse this, but to overrun North Korea as well. Then the Chinese swiftly reversed almost all of these American gains, and the war turned into a long slog in which the U.S. had to accept that, yes, it could conquer South Korea, but the Chinese would not accept any more than that. This war occurred under a sextile of Pluto to Mars, and it did have the favourable nature and learning potential of the sextile: The U.S. was able to achieve its original aim of liberating South Korea from its conquerors, but America also had to learn that there were limitations to what it could do in relation to the big communist powers. The US also perhaps learned something about its own tendency to demonise, as these were the years of the macarthy anti-communist witch hunts, which in many ways had a devastating effect on American life. One could characterize this as the inward face of the Pluto-Mars transit.
The Vietnam War occurred under the square of Pluto to Mars, a much less favourable aspect with sharper lessons to teach. The U.S. eventually lost this war, of course. Again, the U.S. was trying to stop the communist north of a country from conquering the non-communist south. This war was unwinnable; America learnt that, in modern times, if a large part of the population of a foreign country opposes you, the war becomes very expensive, and a final victory cannot be secured. The European powers had figured this out earlier in the 20th century as they dismantled their foreign empires.
Vietnam is also known as the war where the U.S. was forced, for the first time, to face its own brutality. A defining moment was the My Lai massacre, which occurred on March 16, 1968, when transiting Pluto was retrograde at 21°25^ Virgo, two minutes from an exact square to natal Mars. Need we say any more? A classic function of Pluto is to reveal one’s shadow side, the side that is not compatible with the idealised image that people — or countries — may hold of themselves. The exactness of the square suggests that this particular function of Pluto was indeed part of the meaning of that war.
The Crucible of Iraq
And so we come to the Iraq War under the current Pluto opposition to the U.S. Mars. In this war, all previous lessons seem to have been forgotten, and none of the ostensible reasons for going to war seem to hold water. As ghastly as Saddam Hussein was, he did not pose a significant security threat and did not have weapons of mass destruction; moreover, large parts of the Iraqi population (plus plenty of insurgents from outside the country) are opposed to the U.S. presence. This war, therefore, looks to be unwinnable as well, and with Pluto at its furthest point from natal Mars, the U.S. seems to have reached a nadir in terms of its honesty, intelligence, motives, and tactics for the war and its aftermath. This is not to say that removing Saddam wasn’t a good thing for Iraq: It might prove to be, in the long term, a manifestation of America’s redemptive Neptune again. But that wasn’t why the U.S. (and one or two lesser players) went to war with Iraq.
It is interesting that, from very early on, this war was compared by some to Vietnam. Such comments were made well before the situation had become so intractable, and they now seem prescient, showing an awareness of the lessons of the past. And the astrology is similar: Both wars occurred under hard transits of Pluto to natal Mars. America got its fingers burnt in Vietnam, and for a long time it did seem to have learnt from that. Now, under the leadership of a different generation, the U.S. appears to have forgotten the lessons but is, hopefully, in the process of relearning them.
The torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison first became known to the world on 29TH April 2004. (Since this abuse occurred over a period of time, the date when news of it was first released seems to be the best basis for a chart.) As with the My Lai massacre, Pluto was retrograde and very close to an exact hard aspect to Mars — this time, within half a degree. So, in this war, just as in Vietnam, the brutish face of the U.S. is being held up for all the world to see. In retrospect, this sort of occurrence seems psychologically inevitable, given the current U.S. government's extreme demonisation of Saddam and the "terrorists." The U.S. has again had a mirror held up to itself, but it may be too early to say what long-term effect this will have.
Now that the ideologically driven George W. Bush has been re-elected, America is unlikely to learn much from its experience — until 2008, at least. This is quite worrisome, since analysis of the charts of the major powers, OPEC, and the First Oil Strike in the U.S. indicates a major crisis over finite oil supplies, coming our way in just a few years, which will lead to a world very different from the one we live in now. (Pluto squared the U.S. Neptune and the OPEC Sun in Virgo in 2004, suggesting that the current war is a harbinger of this future oil crisis.) Intelligence, moderation, and restraint on the part of the major powers will be needed to negotiate these difficult waters. These are not qualities that we are likely to see from the current US administration. The trouble with an energy crisis is that it raises survival issues, which in turn bring about right-wing, military governments. Despite behaving as though the oil supply is limitless, Americans may be aware on a deeper level that the supply is finite; this could be one of the main (albeit unconscious) reasons behind the re-election of President Bush: survival. At the moment, it seems probable that the U.S. will move into the oil crisis in a messianic, unilateral, highly aggressive way. (In 2010, there will be a cardinal t-square involving Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto aspecting the U.S. Midheaven at 1° Libra.)
We should not rule out, however, the possibility that the U.S. will learn from the experience of the Iraq War, in time for the 2008 election and the coming oil crisis. Learn what? That there are limits to its power (see the section on progressed Mars, below), that it needs allies, and that "insurgents" and terrorists can make the acquisition of oil through military conquest a very difficult and expensive process..
Pluto is considered by some not to be a planet, but rather an object from the Kuiper belt made from primordial rock and without the complexity of a true planet. This description corresponds well to its astrological function, which is to strip one down to expose the basic realities; out of this process (hopefully), a more authentic character can be reborn. This principle can be applied to a series of Pluto transits: Each successive transit reveals the true character more fully. In the case of the U.S. Pluto–Mars transits, it could be argued that they have functioned to reveal raw American imperialism. With the current Pluto–Mars opposition and the Iraq War — where none of the ostensible reasons for the war hold water — the naked self-interest is plain to see. The waning series of Pluto transits will therefore provide an opportunity to build on this possibly enhanced self-knowledge. With any luck, we will see the beginnings of a new psychological maturity as America starts to bring the light and dark twins together: to see the arrogance of turning its own political system into a God-given Truth, to see its own greed and drive for power, and to see that, as human beings, Americans are no better than their enemies. If this happens, it can be traced back to the humiliation of 9/11, when Pluto was opposite the U.S. Gemini Descendant (Pluto is also now at the start of a return trajectory from U.S. Ascendant to the Descendant). Since then, we have witnessed an intensification of America’s tendency to divide the world into good and evil; however, characteristics that are about to change under a Pluto transit sometimes seem to reach a new intensity in their death throes. This may be what we are seeing under George W. Bush.
The current hunt for terrorist cells within US borders also presents an opportunity for the US to come to know itself. This hunt is, one could say, the inward face of the present Pluto-Mars transit, in the same way that Macarthyism was the inward face of the 1951-2 Pluto-Mars transit. At least with Macarthyism there was an objective element, inasmuch as some people really were, or had been, communists. In the case of the hunt for terrorists, not a single successful prosecution has resulted that has stuck, and the idea of Al-Quaeda as an organized world-wide terror network increasingly appears to a large degree to have been a paranoid fantasy, invented by the politicians. With Plutoat its furthest extent from Mars, the US shadow is perhaps clearer and less diluted by reality than it has ever been!
The Two World Wars
Having seen something of the character of the Pluto-Mars transits, it is necessary to look briefly at what seems to be a rather large omission – the 2 really big conflicts, World Wars I & II. The fact that they did not occur under Pluto-Mars transits suggests that they were of a different nature, from a US point of view, to the Wars that came later in the century. It suggests, for example, that there wasn’t the same level of imperialism, ideological polarization and paranoia, even though as wars they were much bigger. And the history seems to bear this out. The US as a whole was very reluctant to get involved in either war. She got involved in WWI as late as 1917, and the eventual catalyst was economic: German submarines began destroying large amounts of US shipping and damaging her economy. As usual with American wars, the defining transit occurred a year or two before her involvement, in 1914/15: transiting Pluto in Cancer squaring the US MC at 1°03^ Libra. This transit plausibly suggests that the war was about the USA, however reluctantly, starting to claim her place as a significant power on the world stage. As for WWII, there was a clear objective threat that had to be responded to when Japan attacked the US fleet as Pearl Harbour on Dec 7th 1941. 3 days later, Hitler did Roosevelt the favour of declaring war on the US, which drew the US into the European war as well. The defining transit this time was in 1938/39, when transiting Neptune conjoined natal Neptune at 22°25^ Virgo and squared natal Mars at 21°23^ Gemini. This suggests America’s redemptive Neptune as the driving force behind her involvement in WWII, and the historical outcome, which we all know, bears out this interpretation. As the war progressed, Neptune moved on to conjoin the US MC at 1°03^ Libra (1942/3) – emphasizing the redemptive nature of this war from the USA point of view – while Pluto conjoined the US Node at 6°36^ Leo (1942-44), perhaps suggesting that the USA was at last fully encountering her destiny as a world power. There is obviously much more possible astrological exploration around the World Wars, but the point for now is that they were of a different nature to the wars that came later – or to the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Progressed Mars
Returning to the theme of the US Mars, we can gain more understanding of it through considering the Progressed US Mars, which is a significant player: at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, for example, progressed Mars was one degree from the U.S. MC, and as the Vietnam War drew to a close, progressed Mars squared the U.S. Sun. Progressed Mars is still in the U.S. 10th house in Libra and, in July 2006, will go retrograde (for 80 years) for the first time in U.S. history — just as Pluto is starting its long return journey back to conjoin natal Mars.
The immediate meaning of Mars's retrograde motion indicates the U.S. getting even more bogged down in Iraq or suffering a terminal change of military fortunes there. (I predict that the U.S. will leave Iraq to the jihadists in late 2007 or early 2008, as Jupiter moves from squaring Pluto, in the chart for the handover of power in 2004, to conjoining natal Pluto three years after that.)
The wider, long-term meaning of the progression may well have to do with America finally realising the limits of its military power: It cannot attempt to rule the world alone anymore. The youthful military confidence and braggadocio that have gone virtually unchecked for a century may gradually give way to a more considered, realistic, multilateral attitude, based on an understanding of U.S. limitations, economic as well as military. I make such Saturnian predictions because the U.S. has natal Saturn (ruler of the US 2nd House of wealth) at 15° Libra in the 10th house: Progressed Mars will retrograde back to conjoin this Saturn for 25 years starting in 2006, while Progressed Saturn itself began a 135-year retrograde motion (again, for the first time) in 1997. So, the Pluto–Mars transits and the progressions of Mars and Saturn taken together all seem to point to a reversal of American military fortunes in the short term and a re-assessment of its place in the world, both militarily and economically, over the next 25 years or so. I find this a cause for optimism, despite the nature of the current U.S. administration.
At the same time, the U.S. will be undergoing major upheavals during this period, (along with the other major powers) as the transiting Neptune–Chiron conjunction conjoins the U.S. Moon [2010], the Uranus–Pluto square hits its MC [2009-11] and then its Sun–Saturn square [2014-15], and Neptune in Pisces squares its Ascendant [2016-18]. Then the U.S. will experience Neptune opposite natal Neptune [2021-22], its Pluto [2022] and Uranus returns [2027], and Uranus conjunct its Descendant [2028-29]. But that is another story!
Chart Data and Sources
(in order of reference)
U.S. "Sibly" chart, July 4, 1776; 5:10 p.m. LMT; Philadelphia, PA (39°N57^, 75°W10^); Nicholas Campion, Book of World Horoscopes (BWH), The Wessex Astrologer Ltd., 2004, Chart 370.
Tony Blair, May 6, 1953; 6:10 a.m. GDT; Edinburgh, Scotland (55°N57^, 03°W13^); AA: Caroline Gerard quotes birth certificate.
Handover of Power in Iraq, June 28, 2004; 10:26 A.M BAT; BAGHDAD, IRAQ (33°N21^, 44°E25^); BBC NEWS
OPEC, September 14, 1960; 9:00 a.m. GMT; Baghdad, Iraq (33°N21^, 44°E25^); Campion, BWH, Chart 422.
First Oil Strike, August 28, 1859 NS; 4:00 p.m. LMT; Titusville, PA (41°N38^, 79°W40^); Campion, BWH, Chart 421.
© 2005 Dharmaruci – all rights reserved
