TESTING THE CHART OF ISLAM
AND THE U.S. BOYD CHART
 

"A really good chart  should consistently astonish
any discriminating astrologer who puts it to the test.
A good chart will always astonish you. Anything less
than astonishing is a clue that there is a better chart
hiding in some year's ephemeris and waiting to be found"
[Jimm Erickson, American Astrology June 1991, p.58-60]

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NOTE: for the data used to make the chart of Islam see the notes at the end of this compilation

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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 14:22:15 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam - 1

I would like to present in a series of small commentaries what I think are very significant inter-aspects between the horoscope of Islam and the US chart, the chart of Israel, the chart of the WTC attack, and the date of Bin Laden's fatwa "to kill the Americans and their allies".  In order to account for precession, all the positions are in the sidereal zodiac.  As always, I try to limit myself to 1-degree orbs and to 4th-harmonic aspects involving the Moon and the Sun. This assures that the relationships are critical.

In my opinion, the value of this horoscope for Islam is that it represents a much bigger and transcendental thing than simply the chart of a specific Islamic nation or political event.  I think this chart sheds a lot of light on current events, a light that we need in order to go beyond the brain-washing to which we are subjected by the media and the tenebrous hypocrisy of politicians.

The "fatwa" (="judgement") was written by Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin and faxed to Al- Quds al-'Arabi in London where it was published in Arabic on February 23, 1998.  At 12h GMT that day, the Sun was in exact conjunction with Jupiter (remember, it is the sidereal zodiac):

  Sun = 9,57 Aquarius
  Jupiter = 9,51 Aquarius

This conjunction is in exact opposition to Venus in the chart of Islam:

  Venus Islam = 9,45 Leo

while in the U.S. Boyd chart (the War chart) we find:

  TF35/Cyllarus= 9,39 Leo
  Pylenor = 9.15 Scorpio

First, quite objectively, we see that the Sun/Jupiter is promoting, exalting, striving to fulfill or exploit the Venus of Islam. Sun/Jupiter and Venus signify a concentration of feelings, an exploitation or promotion of morality, religious feelings, a high ideal, an exaltation of what is most dear (Venus) for a Muslim. At the same time, the Pylenor/Cyllarus involvement in the US chart is a clear indication of:

- the US Cyllarus drags, engulfs, "kidnaps", literally "overpowers" (conjunction) the Venus of Islam, or, seen the other way around, what is most cherished for a Muslim (Venus) is seen as a centaurean crack of the social order, a centaurean outcast, in the US.

- the US Pylenor squares this opposition, forming a T-cross.  This means that the whole thing becomes "Pylenorean" in a critical and compulsive way for the US.  I already developed the symbolism of Pylenor with respect to what Palestinians are to Israelis.  In this case, Pylenor's blood is giving a strong testimony of what Bin Laden describes in his text: make the Americans bleed for their sins!

The Text of the Fatwa says:

<<No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone
<<First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places...

NOTE: here is a clue to the Cyllarus/Venus conjunction...

<<... the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people,

NOTE: Yes!  Remember that Pylenor has a lot to do with humiliation...

<<terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
<<If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.
<<The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.
<<Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.
<<So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
<<Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.
<<The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.>>

Comments:

In my opinion, all of the above are true facts, as Bin Laden said. Even more now, with the destruction of Afghanistan and the use of Pakistani territory and airports to accomplish the disunion and weakness of Arabs even more than before.

But the important part of the Fatwa is the moral call to all Arabs to kill Americans and to the universal Jihad.  This is related to Islamic ideology and feelings, and I think that it is clearly described by other inter-aspects involving Varuna and Chariklo that I will mention in the next messages.

Let's recall that Bin Laden's text was published under an exact Sun/Jupiter conjunction in exact square with the Boyd US Pylenor:

  fatwa Sun = 9,57 Aquarius
  fatwa Jupiter = 9,51 Aquarius
  Islam Venus = 9,45 Leo
  US TF35/Cyllarus= 9,39 Leo
  US Pylenor = 9.15 Scorpio

and at the time of the WTC attack, we find KX76 exactly conjunct this US Pylenor:

  WTC KX76 = 9,45 Scorpio!

This involvement of Pylenor is significant considering how clear its role is in the Israeli-Palestinians conflict ( you can read the arguments and data on this in my collected posts - http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/mundane/palestinians.html ). It is even more acute in the case of the Islam/USA relationship. When one calculates the Davison chart (4th January 1199, 16:03:09 GMT), one finds:

  Sun = 7,40 Capricorn
  Pylenor = 7,38 Cancer

We'll see if the next orbital update of Pylenor changes its position for 1199 AD, although only a small change of a few arcminutes is theoretically expected. Meanwhile, one can say calmly that the role of Pylenor here is very important and illuminating.

Juan
 

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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:34:00 -0600
Subject: Re: AW: [centaurresearchproject] testing the chart of Islam - 1

<<What is the source of this fatwa-text, were did you get it?>>

It is in the Internet:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm (in English translation)
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fatw2.htm (In the original Arabic)

you can also find it in:

Summary/Review of Reports Concerning Threats by Osama Bin Laden to Conduct Terrorist Operations Against the United States and/or her Allies - 02 Feb 98 to 16 Jun 98 (includes original February "fatwa")
"LOS ANGELES TIMES PICK" <<This article was awarded a "Times Pick" by the Los Angeles Times on 8/24/98.>>
"http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/PICK/"

[...]

Juan
 

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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:21:57 -0600
Subject: Re: [Centaurs] Anti-Americanism: stimulus and response

[...]

The quote from the Fatwa is the substantiation of the aspects I was examining and trying to interpret.  I had the option of not quoting anything, but I thought people would be interested in reading it to see how close the words matched the aspects.  I was wrong.

If you don't agree with my interpretation of the aspects, or if you think that comparing the Boyd chart of the US with the chart of Islam and using the sidereal reference frame (the only one with which I always work), is not valid, then say it, and please dare to give us your own alternative interpretation and astrological insights. [...]

How much nonsense for having said that I agree with that part of what Bin Laden wrote.  It is nonsense to pretend to be objective in these matters, and any astrological interpretation of political events is a political act and statement by itself.

I am not sorry for having expressed my political conviction. It is easy to criticize somebody's work or ideas, but please do it with your equivalent alternative interpretative work.

Juan
 

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Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 01:30:29 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] and testing the chart of ...

In Islam there is a very personal and intimate relationship with God and with the "holy places".  This personal intimate involvement can be seen in every Muslim going to his knees head on the ground in the direction of the holy place at the time of prayer every day, in whatever part of the world they are.  This in my opinion is clearly Venusian, personal, intimate, ruled by strong affection and a feeling of submission.  These are Venusian traits.

Furthermore, the Fatwa Sun is very directly involved making the exact opposition.  You may think that the Fatwa (the Sun that illuminates this Venus) is a mere propagandist pamphlet, yet what it is saying in this context about the violation of their holy places by Americans is in my view a very objective reality, and I don't see how it can be denied or ignored.

That the US and the other world powers work strongly and covertly to politically and economically debilitate and divide these countries, as far as I am concerned is a fact demonstrated by many political analysts, many of them Americans.  It is a fact also in my own country and region.

In this context, I think the involvement of the 2 centaurs in the Boyd US "War" chart speaks for itself, especially Pylenor which is better known and appears critically twice, in the Fatwa chart synastry and in the Davison USA/Islam chart. This Boyd US chart has been sufficiently tested over the years and I don't think there is a need to justify its use.

Speaking about morality and "evil" makes no sense to me when so much harm is done by the refusal to view things from the Muslim point of view and to understand their own sense of morality.  America it seems is the incarnation of evil for many if not a majority of Muslims, and I am not interested in being critical about this; I am interested in seeing things from their point of view with the help of Astrology, because I think this is what is badly needed.

My object of interest is mainly the Muslim world, that I want to understand better, not --for the moment-- the World according to the American people or to the American victims of terrorism, or to the American press releases, or to Mr. Bush, to which I am exposed everyday in the TV. That is another subject.

I am strongly critical against US foreign interventions and against the attitude that pretends to see only-evil in "terrorists", without showing any interest in why this terrorism exists or what are its causes, or refusing to see the responsibility they have in creating it, or the terrorism coming from this side of the fence. Nothing is black and white, and this is not "good vs evil" at all. I also explained in my post that the rest of Bin Laden's Fatwa, the moral aspect, was going to be examined in other messages.

I do not object this subject being banned from this forum. I will accept that. Meanwhile, those who dislike the way I think, can hit the delete key.

Juan
 

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Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 04:26:15 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam - 2

Let's remember how important looks Varuna in Islam (Fagan/Bradley sidereal zodiac):

  Sun = 19,53 Cancer
  Varuna = 18,58 Cancer

which as I have mentioned is a "glorified" Varuna. When commenting this aspect time ago, the strong personal submission to a "divine will" or "divine law", inherent in the Arabic meaning of the word "Islam" itself, surfaced as a clear implication of it. I also mentioned back then (you can read all my commentaries collected in http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/notes/varuna.html ) that in Islamic jurisprudence the law or "Shariah" is imposed from above by God and was revealed by Muhammad many centuries ago, contrary to the Western systems where the law evolves in response to the needs of society, and that I believed this "fixism" or fundamentalism was also an expression of Varuna conjunct the Sun.

This means, to me, that "the law" for a Muslim has generally a different meaning than it has for us. It has a very strong, personal, intimate meaning, inextricable from spiritual or religious obligation, from being a servant of God. A Muslim state is therefore by definition a religious state, and the individual self (the Sun) "disappears" as a result of a <<total and unqualified submission to the will of Allah>> (this phrase is how the Britannica describes the fundamental tenet of Islam).

In my view, perhaps the two most revealing inter-aspects that we find from the comparisons I am dealing with are the ones I already mentioned:

  Pluto in the chart of Israel (May 14 1948) = 18,38 Cancer
  transiting TL66 right now = 19,05 Aries

Since the Pluto aspect refers to the birth chart of Israel, then we have what can be considered a permanent situation, something that is "by definition" a question of life and death (Sun/Pluto). We know it is. We know how much "death" (Pluto) has to do with it: death to Israel, or death to Palestinians?

I can see in this Pluto contact the terrorism from both sides, the abuses of all kinds... it is a sign of a fundamentally irreconciliable division at the heart of Islam (the Sun), something that was Plutonically and militarily imposed from above, an insult to what is most fundamental to a Muslim (the Sun). We also see that Islam becomes the personification of Pluto for the Israeli state, could we say the incarnation of its struggle for survival?

The US Boyd chart has Mercury here:

  US Mercury = 18,35 Cancer

It suggests to me that the US involvement in this conflict is detached, something like a witness, a learning experience, a focus of interest, etc. There may be other more profound implications, represented by Mercury/Pluto and dealing with logistics, intelligence, etc. I am not sure what to make of this aspect.

From the centaurs point of view, a very significant relationship appears in the date of Bin Laden's Fatwa:

  Fatwa Chariklo = 18,14 Cancer

I welcome anything you can say about this one and any other aspect I have been mentioning.  It is preposterous to criticize my interpretations when no one dares to make another one.

My feeling goes in the direction of Chariklo representing the "moral bond" or commitment, the dedication requested, being rather dark and linked to death, the death of Islamic children and the darkness of Islamic sacred places, and the corresponding death of Americans and their allies in the name of divine justice. The commitment or moral bond to the intention to kill American civilians is a sort of dark marriage with God, the motivation of which is the mourning of their own families. This is (or may be) Chariklo.

You can read in my site (in Spanish) about a somewhat similar Chariklo relationship in the case of the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, whose Sun was in exact conjunction with the national Chariklo of Mexico.

But the call to the Jihad in the Fatwa is morea legal matter, an appeal to the higher divine will of Allah. In Islamic jurisprudence, there is no difference between the 2 things.

According to the editors of the Fatwa (I will no longer quote it, you can find the whole text with commentaries it in the L.A. Times site at http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/PICK/ ), a fatwa is legally binding if:

1) It is in line with relevant legal proofs, deducted from Koranic verses and hadiths;
2) It is issued by a person (or a board) having due knowledge and sincerity of heart;
3) It is free from individual opportunism, and not depending on political servitude;
4) It is adequate with the needs of the contemporary world.

This type of higher, pre-established legal principles is Varunian (recall the Supreme Court deciding the US presidency at the time Varuna was discovered). Bin Laden is appealing to it, and his "Varunian" vision of America as the seat of evil is and has been shared by many other Muslims in many different countries.  This "judgement" upon the US, or the US actions that have originated it, are perhaps related to the following:

  Moon of Islam = 21,33 Leo
  US Varuna (Boyd chart) = 20,38 Leo
  US Varuna (July 4th 1776) = 21,39 Leo

This works both sides. There is a strong sense of moral superiority (Varuna) in the way Americans judge the Arab world (the Moon of Islam). In fact, both attacks on Irak and on Afghanistan are justified in the name of "Justice", and of course Americans are the judges. I think this is eloquently described in the above aspect.

Juan
 

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Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 14:04:27 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] on methodology and the Boyd chart

The fact that the majority of astrologers do not endorse the USA Boyd chart, or, as has become evident, don't know enough about it, doesn't mean that it is not valid or "legitimate".  It has had a very long verification and validation process, but I do not think that its validity means that other charts are not valid.  I don't see this as an either/or question.

There is no need to try to "prove" one in order to invalidate the other, or to prove that one is superior to the other.  My opinion is that the Declaration of War (Boyd) chart and the Declaration of Idependence are equally valid charts (I like especially the Sibley chart), depending on the point of view, and that at times of War the Boyd chart is probably, by sheer logic, more significant.  I believe the 4th of July chart is more mythical and it relates more to the American people, and as I said, the Boyd chart is a more accurate, less mythical description.

Before continuing, I will tell you exactly how I proceeded, methodologically.

In my notebooks, each page has 36 or 37 lines, and it is very convenient to put long lists of positions together in columns so that I can examine them for inter-aspects. Since I was dealing with the chart of Islam, I had a list of 31 objects that represent the full list available from Riyal for the year 622 AD.  This list comprises the following:

- the 10 planets
- the lunar node, the Asc., MC.  and the osculating lunar apogee or Black Moon
- those centaurs having accurate enough orbits to be calculated to 622 AD, and given by Riyal.  This includes 7 named centaurs (incl.  Pylenor), plus 6 without a name (QM107, BU48, PT13, QC243, TF35, and UG5).  As noted in my presentation of the chart of Islam, the position of Chiron is doubtful and I don't use it even though it is listed.
- 4 transneptunians: KX76, TD10, TL66, and Varuna.

I listed all positions in the sidereal zodiac in order to account for precession in the comparisons, and built the columns downwards in my notebook object by object, producing 8 parallel columns that made the finding of interaspects easier.  The 8 columns, as I have them before me right now, in the order in which I made them, are:

1- Islam: 16 July 622, 16:05:38 GMT, 39e36/24n28
2- Israel: 14 May 1948, 14:15:07 GMT, 34e36/32n04
3- USA Sibley chart: 4 July 1776, 22:50 GMT, 75w10/39n57 (from N. Campion)
4- WTC attack: 11 September 2001, 12:46:26 GMT, 74w01/41n43
5- USA Boyd chart: 6 July 1775, 16:00:40 GMT, 75w10/39n57
6- Bin Laden's Fatwa: 23 February 1998, 12h GMT, no place, no Moon.
7- USA-Boyd/Islam Davison chart: 4 January 1199, 16:03:09 GMT, no place
8- Islam/Israel Davison chart: 8 June 1285, 15:10:23 GMT, no place

there are 2 other columns that I have not made yet:

 9- Islam/WTC attack Davison chart: 6 February 1312, 14:26:02 GMT
10- USA Boyd/WTC attack Davison chart: 8 August 1888, 14:23:33 GMT

With the exception of the Sibley chart, and the Davison charts that were calculated with Riyal, the rest of this data has been presented in my posts.

The order of the columns reflects my interests and the main focus of my mind at the moment.

The aspects I looked for were 1-degree conjunctions, oppositions, and squares involving the Sun, the Moon, and the lunar apogee.  I felt I should discard the lunar node because it was too neutral for the strong indicators I was looking for, and I also discarded the Asc and MC because they are not so certain in these cases nor so vital as the Sun or the Moon. The only thing new in my methodology was the use of the Davison chart, which was mentioned at the end only and practically as an addendum.

At this time, I had never studied the Boyd chart myself, although I had read a lot about it throughout the years, beginning in the late 70's in an astrological magazine called "The Aquarian Agent", but mainly in the pages of American Astrology, where there are brilliant articles by Jimm Erickson and Jim Lewis. Using this chart, Jimm Erickson had made in 1990 a spectacularly successful prediction of the Gulf War that you can check in the pages of that magazine. These articles represent in my opinion the best that can be read on political astrology.

I have never doubted its validity, and felt this was the time to try it myself, since the aspects of the 4th of July 1776 chart had not been very convincing to me so far. The fact that it was chosen among the selected ones in Astrodatabank encouraged me to include it in the exploration I was going to make, thinking that this was going to give it validity to those not familiar with it.

Since I wanted to try the Boyd chart, I decided to make the Davison charts to it, and see if something significant appeared. And there it was to my amazement: the exact Sun/Pylenor opposition in its relationship with Islam! That was very significant, and gave me confidence in using it.

Yesterday, I sat down and began to write. I had a selection of aspects but I didn't know what I was going to say concretely. There was one thing, however, that I had in mind: I would try to figure out the interpretations having the contrary, Muslim point of view as focus. For this reason, I started with Bin Laden's Fatwa, realizing that it would help me focus on the Arab or Muslim point of view, which was (is) my main interest. There is too much worthless speculation about the birth chart of Bin Laden, yet here we have a concrete date that can shed light on him.

The whole endeavor had the chart of Islam as a focus. I wrote in my message about the Sun/Jupiter conjunction in 9 Aquarius of the Fatwa but had to stop there because I didn't have anything else at that moment. I then looked more carefully and found the contacts I mentioned. There were no significant contacts with the 4th of July chart, so it was evident that the Fatwa against Americans was "being directed" toward the Boyd chart. This chart spoke eloquently about Bin Laden's admonition to kill Americans and about Americans unquestionable (to me) actions against Islam, while the 4th of July chart was silent, according to the same methodology I have used for years.

I don't like posts that consist of only positions without reasoning and without interpretative analysis.  I don't need to repeat what my feelings and political convictions are here, except that all interpretations done by astrologers are subjective, and reflect the culture of the astrologer.  This is especially the case of interpretative astrological analysis of political events. I explained my reasoning, presented the relevant data, saw and mentioned the "exploitation" possibility of Jupiter, but focused in understanding what this Venus of Islam being exhorted or exploited meant to Islamic people.

It was very evident that the critical involvement of the centaurs Pylenor and TF35 in the USA "War" chart was describing the situation presented by the Fatwa, and that's why I decided to post the part of it that I thought was descriptive of the aspects mentioned, and with which I happened to agree.  That part of the Fatwa quoted is something that is, in my view, in the hearts of many Muslims, and I see a remarkable description of it in the centaur aspects mentioned.

About Cyllarus: unlike Pylenor, I don't know what its characteristics are.  When writing about its conjunction with the Venus of Islam, since this is no love affair, I had some generic centaur characteristics in mind, particularly very Plutonian centaurs like TF35, and I just referred to the meaning of the conjunction.

Juan
 

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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 10:11:39 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 3

In a message of  Sept. 24th, I mentioned the symbolism of the Black Moon. Let me repeat part of what I wrote then:

<<... the (true) Black Moon I think shows the "dark side" of things, that which is denied or never said, disposed of or "hidden".>>

<<The Black Moon symbolism is almost always seen only from the individual perspective, but it has an obvious collective side, especially in the cases of mass behavior such as this. It is related to the "dark" or "occult" side of the Moon, the herd instinct, the irrational, the movement and power of the masses, the return to the collective womb.>>

<<This "return to the womb" is what we have been seeing happening in the US after the attack, i.e., go back to the most collective symbols and emotions...>>

At the time of the WTC attack, the true Black Moon was in line with the US Boyd Neptune (sidereal)

  WTC Black Moon = 28,09 Aquarius
  US (Boyd) Neptune =28,41 Leo.

Now take a look at the position of Mars in the Fatwa of Bin Laden:

  Fatwa Mars = 28,09 Aquarius

in exact conjunction with the Black Moon of the attack. In the chart of Islam, we find:

  Uranus = 25,45 Leo
  Neptune = 29,42 Leo
  midpoint = 27,44 Leo

I develop the symbolism of the osculating Black Moon in http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/blackmoon/lilith.html. The economic and ideological basis of the Neptunian symbolism is explained by one of the fathers of American astrology, Marc Edmund Jones, and I have extracted the relevant passages that you can read in http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/notes/neptune.html.

The World Trade Center was (is) the strongest material symbol of American capitalism and "economic pride". And indeed, after the attack, we have seen what can be interpreted as a "regression" of the economy, in line with the true Black Moon. This regression may not be caused only by the attack of Sept. 11th, but that day certainly became a very dramatic symbol or reference point for it. Even the crumbling of the building itself is a manifestation of the Black Moon "swallowing" the 2 towers like a whirlpool, as well as the collective hysteria and terror that came as a result. All this is part of the collective Black Moon.

Neptune is close to the horizon in the US Boyd chart, signifying, from one perspective, the deceptive or blurred vision that Americans have of the role of the US in other parts of the world. Neptune rules the economic interdependence of a global community, and also the more or less unconscious self-justifying ideologies that  perpetuate human injustice and misery. The US systematically violates the principles on which it was constituted (the 4th of July Declaration of Independence) when dealing with other poor nations, and <<condons repression, torture, and inhuman disregard of civil rights in its various "client states" around the world>>.

The above phrase can be read in an analysis of the Uranus/Neptune conjunction written by the late Jim Lewis in the American Astrology Digest of 1991. This "dark side" of Neptune is, in my opinion, being dramatized by what is happening now. The 2 towers were a very strong Neptunian symbol because they represented the corporate global elites whose policies directly exploit and impoverish many poor countries around the world, and the dark military and economic motivations of this and of the Gulf War that contrast dramatically with the self-promoted image of a society of freedom and the law.

You won't be able to accuse brilliant astrologers like Jim Lewis and many others, and brilliant magazines like "American Astrology", of being anti-American. Yet the fiercest criticisms that I have read toward the American government and toward the distorted self-image Americans have of themselves as a nation, come from them.

The point here, to me, is that astrologers, traditionally and speaking in general only (there are notable exceptions), lack the economic and socio-cultural critical conscience necessary to analyze political and economical events.

The above, I think, illustrates some of the areas in which the USA-Boyd Neptune works.

Juan

ADDENDUM

The following is the last part of the message to which I referred referred above. It must be added to complement my thoughts on this subject:

"History --I think-- shows how this centaurean conflict surfaces: that fallacious, warped, distorted and stereotyped image of the Arab world that sees Muslims as fanatics, less evolved, terrorists, etc. In fact, this is an attitude the US has always had toward minorities within itself (stereotypes about blacks, Hispanics, etc.). The square of the Sun with the centaurs represents the need to conquer and to impose, to block and impede development, which is the characteristic of the US (and of Europe) internationally, with respect to Third World countries.

"Whoever doubts this, I suggest reading Phillip Knightley & Colin Simpson's "The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia" London: Panther Books, 1971, based on previously secret released material documentation about T. E. Lawrence's mission in the Arab world for the sake of British interests and as a spy working for the Secret Service. One thing is what is said to the Press, something very different is what is really done or intended. I comment this case in http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/essays/predators.html

"Under a solar square like this, the centaur surfaces as "the devil", you (the Sun) are confronting "evil" (the centaur), which is but a projection of your own inner evil (Sun square the centaur). The extreme fanaticism is inside, it is the Sun's vision that is thwarted by what it cannot understand: the workings of the centaurs in Islamic society.

"There are certain aspects of terrorism that average Americans and Europeans have a hard time understanding, having to do with the attitude towards death, and, in this case, since it is the Sun that is involved, with the attitude towards individuality. These two things have a very different meaning for the persons who hijacked the planes and crashed them because they come from a different culture, a different set of values regarding death and the importance of the individual person.

"Mostly, they come from a culture of death, perpetuated unto the present by the deliberate and oppressive actions of powerful countries (like the US in this case) that have always strove to dominate them with extreme cruelty and harshness. Dying, as St. Paul would say, is for them a gain, not a loss, and the individual is dispensable for the sake of the nation or the dream they love.

"As Brad Pitt would say to Harrison Ford before dying in his arms: <<remember, I told you, this is not the American dream... it is the Irish dream...">>

" ...or the Arab dream.

"There are terrorists in the Arab world, as there are in the U.S. Those usually work for the CIA. And there are thousands of brain-washed persons in every society: they are called soldiers.

"Juan"
 

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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:27:15 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 3b

Mundane specialist Michael O'Reilly (a tropical, not a sidereal astrologer) makes the following comments about the chart of Islam (ref.: American Astrology, April 1991, p. 35):

<<What is clear --and of fundamental concern to astrologers-- is that Islam's birth chart still rings true in the 20th century.
<<As a geopolitical entity, this chart also responds  to the borderless Arab Nation, first popularized by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. As Nasser, and later other Arab dictators  such as Colonel Kaddafi of Lybia, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran and Iraq's Saddam Hussein, have explained, the Arab people belong to one nation. The current political borders were established by European Imperialists (the French and British) after World War I, and were designed to divide and subjugate the Arab people.>>

This is part of what Bin Laden said in his fatwa that I quoted, and with which I agreed. Of the Uranus/Neptune conjunction in tropical Virgo:

<<Islam's birth chart features the Uranus-Neptune conjunction in practical and orderly Virgo, opposed to a transcendent Jupiter in Pisces. Mohammed's mission as he saw it was to create heaven on earth. In his later years the messages he received turned from the cosmic to the mundane and he preached administrative justice and an equitable distribution of resources. Such teachings have been used by subsequent generations to justify social upheaval and popular revolution (the Moon is conjunct Uranus). As of this writing in September 1990, Saddam Hussein uses these same words to rally Middle East Arabs against the wealthy Saudis and Kuwaitis.>>[ibid., p.34]

Now, Bin Laden uses them to exhort Arabs to kill Americans:

  Fatwa Mars = 28,09 Aquarius
  Black Moon WTC = 28,09 Aquarius
  Chiron WTC = 28,17 Scorpio

  Islam Uranus = 25,45 Leo
  Islam Neptune = 29,42
  Leo midpoint - 27,44 Leo

  USA Neptune = 28,41 Leo

Juan
 

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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 17:35:23 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 4

Recall the quote from the Britannica in my message on the formation of Israel 80 years ago:

<<In April 1920, at the Conference of San Remo, the Allies divided the former territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire...>>

This conference was very important for all Islamic countries, and in my opinion, of all the historical reference points that we can find to chart the origins of the present political situation, this is the most symbolical. Straight lines were drawn on a map and the allies negotiated the military control of the Arab countries among themselves. The Suez Canal and the vast oil resources were of supreme strategic and military importance (such as is Afghanistan today), and Arab national interests were ignored or stepped upon, even though the good intentions were on paper. Neither France nor Britain had the slightest intention of giving up their domination over the region; it was their war prize.

According to the Britannica, the conference in the Italian riviera lasted from April 19 to April 26, 1920. During these days, Mars was very strong in the sky, retrograde and in opposition to the Sun. The exact opposition was on the 21th at 8h44m GMT, the 3rd day of the conference:

  Mars = 7,18 Libra (sidereal)
  Sun = 7, 18 Aries

This Mars was in exact conjunction with Hylonome in the chart of Islam:

  Hylonome of Islam = 6,37 Libra

Remember some of my keywords for Hylonome: "the sacrificial victim", "the cry of the poor"...

Now, as a curiosity, remember the Sun Pylenor opposition in the USA/Islam relationship:

  Sun = 7,40 Capricorn
  Pylenor = 7,38 Cancer

perfectly aligned with the Sun/Mars opposition of the conference of San Remo. I said "curiosity" because the US did not participate in that conference. What could be the role of the US in the situation symbolized by the conference? The only thing that comes to mind is:

  one axis of the cross = Britain/France, 1920-1950 = Sun/Mars
  second axis of the cross = U.S.A., 1950-2001 = Sun/Pylenor

In a post by Jonathan Dunn dated October 9, we could read some speculations about the "80 years" mentioned twice by Bin Laden in a broadcast (NOTE: this tape, most probably, makes reference to the Embassy attacks of 1998, not the WTC attack last September):

<<In his videotape broadcast, Osama Bin Laden made two references to "80 years." The first: "What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted. Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more than 80 years, of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated." Later, Osama repeated the temporal reference, saying "the sword fell upon America after 80 years." What's he talking about? What happened around 80 years ago?>>

Here is again the same concept, or rather, feeling: <<humiliation and disgrace>>, which I have said is related to Pylenor, and which was evident in Israeli/Palestinian history (ref.: http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/mundane/palestinians.html ). We also showed how the Fatwa of Bin Laden (Sun/Jupiter 9 Aquarius) exhorting the Venus of Islam (9 Leo) was a direct attack and reference to the Pylenor (and TF35) position in the US "War" chart (9 Scorpio), which was the position ok KX76 in the WTC attack. Now consider the position of Pylenor in the Conference of San Remo, taking its end the 26th of April as reference:

  Pylenor at San Remo = 9,34 Aquarius

exactly in conjunction with the Sun/Jupiter of the Fatwa, etc.

Juan
 

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Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 06:45:59 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 5

The following are some philosophical reflections on methodology.

Often, in political astrology, a chart is sought that can be used as a sort of "absolute" reference point or radical with which to analyze the astrology of a country or a nation. This practice comes from natal astrology, which is based on "the birth-chart paradigm", which to me, is actually a dogma that hinders the exploration of other ways of making the astrological measurement or charting of an individual life. Inherent to this, is a specific philosophical conception of man, and also a particularly lineal conception of time based on the metaphor of a seed that would have been completely alien to a Babylonian or to anyone used to the ever changing, ever-recurring  patterns in the sky.

We tend to believe that a country can have only one "birth chart", and we establish theoretically what this chart is through an a-priori reasoning based on what might be the "foundation time". We then try to disregard all other possible charts, thinking that --like a human being-- a nation cannot have different "birth charts" at the same time. But I think that this is wrong even in the case of an individual human being, unless we are stuck in a biological conception of astrology that is being constantly contradicted by our practice and by the nature of our tools. Anyway, any biological conception of "the mechanism" of astrology cracks in the face of mundane astrology, and yet we still pretend to apply to it the canons or dogmas or paradigms of natal astrology.

Jimm Erickson proposes a different view: that the chart we use is not forced upon us by an arbitrary a-priori decision based on logic, but that it be the one that measures both the past and the future best. What is at stake here is the concept of what constitutes an event, what makes it "significant".

An event does not exist by itself. It exists as such because we make it so, and its significance is the result of a subjective-cultural process inside the mind. In other words, an event is not something "objective", and this is nowhere better illustrated than in political astrology. Often, the chart that works best is that of a merely symbolical "event", and not the one that we would expect as a result of our a-priori pre-conceptions, or rather, prejudices.

The date of Bin Laden's Fatwa as well as the US Boyd chart are examples of this.

Furthermore, the nature of political events is very fluid, one significant event grows on the other without making it disappear, one chart "rules" until it is substituted by another, but the prior chart does not "die", as ideas do not die but are renovated and transformed.

The chart of Islam is an example of this.

Ultimately, a human being, in its spiritual and psychological reality, is the same. We are fluid beings in the stream of time. This, I think, is what the discovery of the centaurs points at: there is no "ultimate" spiritual or psychological reference point, the "self" or "the ego" is not a point of rest or of "security"; we are existential nomads living daily with existential death, forever overflowing ourselves, cracking our own paradigms, being dead and alive at the same time, dying with the other, living with the other...

So why astrology should be so far away from this reality and pretend to reduce everything to one single birth moment? Why it cannot be also fluid like the reality it pretends to elucidate?

Astrologer Clay Reed puts it like this:

<<Given the enormous amount of information available to astrologers, we take for granted that birth chart information is to be given de facto priority. That's a mistake. Certainly some elements of the birth chart deserve relative priority, but the possibility remains that much information derived from birth charts is ultimately less important than other astrological data...
<<Even non-astrologers would admit that a change in the timing of a link in a causal chain will have long-term effects on the timing of future links. Astrology offers a method of evaluating this otherwise unknowable effect. Astrology is at root the study of the significance of "when". But if every astrological datum rooted in the "when" of birth is given de facto priority, we diminish this very concept; only one "when" is allowed to be so important, and every other "when" is demoted.
<<I assert that the birth does not hold the key to its own "synthesis". The significant points in the chart only become so, as the result of outside conditions which are entirely independent of both the individual and his or her chart.>> (American Astrology, April 1991, p.50)

Here is a quotation from Alexandra David-Neel & Lama Yongden's "The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects":

<<The word "event" must not be taken in the sense it is understood in ordinary language, that is to say as meaning a fact of exceptional importance as when one speaks of a "historical event". Event here means "something which happens". These somethings arising instantaneously and in series, these rapid flashes of energy are sufficiently like one another during the series to remain imperceptible to us, then suddenly occurs, in this series of moments, a different moment which catches our attention and makes us think that a new object has appeared.>>

The above is given by astrologer Kenneth Irving in his review of Jimm Erickson's contribution to "The Astrology of the Macrocosm" (ed. Joan McEvers). The review says:

<<Erickson proposes that any particular "event" chosen as a starting point (e.g. the "birth chart" of a country or political movement) can be seen as a set of transits to another "event" chart in the past.>> (American Astrology, June 1991, p.21)

In other words, and I agree completely with them:

1- any significant event is not a "cause", but a "sign"
2- one moment of time becomes the radical of other moments, which in turn become radicals of other more.

I do not think that political astrology consists only of analyzing birth charts of individuals or of nations, it is also analyzing the charts of significant, "cathartic" events that dominate the atmosphere for a certain time until they are substituted by others, and seeing how the different events at different moments of time interact with each other. The past is never dead. It is history, like a river that carries its origin and its end into the present. The past and the future are in constant interaction.

Change the word "cathartic" for "epiphanical", and we can apply the same concept to natal astrology.

Juan
 

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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 07:46:17 -0600
Subject: Re: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 3c

Michael O'Reilly (see my former message): "What is clear --and of fundamental concern to astrologers-- is that Islam's birth chart still rings true in the 20th century. As a geopolitical entity, this chart also responds  to the borderless Arab Nation..."

This is confirmed by the article in the Britannica, which describes it with the following words:

<<The vast variety of races and cultures embraced by Islam (estimated to total 600,000,000 to 700,000,000 persons worldwide) has produced important internal differences. All segments of Muslim society, however, are bound by a common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community. With the loss of political power during the period of Western colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, the concept of the Islamic community ("ummah"), instead of weakening, became stronger. The faith of Islam helped various Muslim peoples  in their struggle to gain political freedom in the mid 20th century and the unity of Islam contributed to later political solidarity.>>

Michael O'Reilly: "Islam's birth chart features the Uranus-Neptune conjunction in practical >and orderly Virgo, opposed to a transcendent Jupiter in Pisces. Mohammed's mission as he saw it was to create heaven on earth. In his later years the messages he received turned from the cosmic to the mundane..."

The Britannica explains it like this:

<<In AD 622, when the prophet fled to Medina, his preaching was soon accepted, and the community-state of Islam emerged. During this early period , Islam acquired its characteristic ethos as religion uniting in itself both the spiritual and temporal aspects of life in seeking to regulate not only the individual's relationship to God (through his conscience) but human relationships in a social setting as well. Thus, there is not only an Islamic religious institution but also an Islamic law, state, and other institutions governing society. Not until the 20th century were the religious (private) and the secular (public) distinguished by some Muslim thinkers and separated formally, as in Turkey.
<<This dual religious and social character of Islam, expressing itself in one way as a religious community commissioned by God to bring its own value system to the world through the "jihad" ("holy war" or "holy struggle"), explains the astonishing success of the early generations of Muslims. Within a century after the Prophet's death in AD 632, they had brought a large part of the globe --from Spain across Central Asia to India-- under a new Arab Muslim empire.>>

The Uranus/Neptune conjunction happening just after the Gulf War (remember the "New World" Christmass present to Americans of George Bush) brought the chart of Islam to a new focus. Jim Lewis had this to say:

<<It is noteworthy that the founding of Islam occurred 4 years before a conjunction of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, an exceedingly rare aspect that just recurred in 1989. The only other occurrence of this triple conjunction in modern history happened in 1307, at which time the Crusades  were running out of gas (figuratively), and the Moslems were reclaiming their lands from Western European domination. The recent eventuality of this conjunction and its association with Islam should be factored into any long-range prognostication of who will ultimately prevail in the current attempt to secure dominance over the area.>>[ref.: "The Mideast Crisis", part II, American Astrology, March 1991, p.28]

Needless to say, he wrote this months before its publication, when "Desert Storm" had not been launched. I wonder what his analysis would be of the present situation, had not he died so early.

Juan
 

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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 11:45:32 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 6

I would like to examine now the aspects dealing with the Gulf War against Iraq. A detailed chronology of "Desert Storm" is found in "American Astrology", June, 1991, pp.17-18. I will deal with only 2 dates: 17 January 1991 2:30 a.m. Baghdad time (bombardment of Baghdad starts, beginning of the war), and its antecedent, 2 August 1990, 2:00 a.m. Baghdad time (Iraq invades Kuwait). These I think represent the 2 faces of the conflict: Arab attacks Arab, USA attacks Arab.

The first thing I want to mention is an aspect that first surprised me:

  Sun Islam = 19,53 Cancer
  Venus Desert Storm = 20,07 Capricorn

I thought: what does such a war has to do with Venus? Then I remembered the fatwa of Bin Laden, which is the reverse:

  Sun fatwa = 9,57 Aquarius
  Venus Islam = 9,45 Leo

and thought that the meaning of an opposition like this could be seen as a "split". The Sun of the fatwa exhorts the fundamental values of Islam (Venus), but the square of the US Pylenor and the exact opposition of US TF35 conjunct Islam's Venus can be seen as dramatizing a "split", i.e., Islam is exhorted but sees from a distance (opposition) the murderous intentions of the Fatwa (the Sun challenging or attacking the US centaurs, esp. the "bloodiest" of them - Pylenor.). Even though the centaurean humiliation of Islam's Venus is acute (square of US War Pylenor) and the abuse is very direct (conjunction of US War TF35), the exhortation is seen indirectly, from a distance. It is not immediate (conjunction), but is critically mediated by the US Pylenor as focus of the T-cross.

In Desert Storm, it is the Sun of Islam that is involved, Islam's integrity and "destiny", its individuality or strength. So what does the Venus of "Desert Storm" represents that is "exalting" Islam's Sun? (suggestions are welcomed...)

Perhaps it has to do with Kuwait's "riches", i.e., the control (Sun) of Islam's greatest material asset: oil. It is seeing the Sun from a distance, saying to the Sun "you won't have me", tempting it, dramatizing "the plunder" of Islam's riches mentioned by the fatwa?. There is nothing mediating this opposition, it remains totally ambivalent, unlike the fatwa, which is square Pylenor...

The answer about this mediation, the key to this opposition, is found in the following:

  Iraq invades Kuwait:
  Pluto = 20,22 Libra

in exact square to the above. The meaning of this Pluto becomes more clear when we realize that it is in opposition with Mars, so that we have:

  Sun Islam = 19,53 Cancer
  Varuna of Islam = 18,58 Cancer

  Pluto invasion of Kuwait = 20,22 Libra
  Mars invasion of Kuwait = 18,38 Aries

  Pluto of Israel = 18,38 Cancer
  Node of Israel = 20,00 Aries

  Venus Desert Storm = 20,07 Capricorn

  Mercury US = 18,35 Cancer

  Chariklo Fatwa = 18,14 Cancer

Desert Storm Venus, then, is not "alone" at all, its hidden meaning is "cracked" or revealed by the Mars/Pluto opposition of the invasion of Kuwait, the US Mercury, and the lunar node and Pluto of Israel, and was "condensed" by the Chariklo of the Fatwa. There is a lot to meditate here, but I have a feeling that the involvement of Venus suggests that the rest of the Arab nations rejected Saddam Hussein's actions, repudiated them (Venus).

I also feel that Venus hints at the "death" or painful separation from something that is very dear. When I have encountered a transit similar to this involving Pluto and Venus, it describes a situation when you are ending a relationship, the day when you are starting your emotional death, when you have your loved one no more. This may be a clue to what the Fatwa mentions: after Desert Storm or beginning from it, the "Holy Land" is theirs no more, it is being violated by the US military presence, and is being used to inflict damage and pain on Islamic people.

There are multiple levels of meaning of this Venus, many possibilities. Perhaps its being made focal both by the Fatwa and by Desert Storm is pointing in the same direction, perhaps it is that part of the Arab world that is most wanted and lusted by the Western economic powers: oil (not oil physically, but its condition as an asset, which is ruled by Venus).

more on Desert Storm later.

Juan
 

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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 14:50:38 -0600
Subject: Re: [Centaurs] Re: testing the chart of Islam, 6

I have tried to add the word "sidereal" after the first position in all the posts, but sometimes I forget. On several places I have explained that the sidereal zodiac is used all around in order to account for precession. This will produce a difference of 1 degree for every 72 years that separate any two charts being compared.

I do not care for the sidereal or tropical sign meanings, and am not interested in the usual sidereal-tropical controversy, since I use them both. I only care (for the moment) for the relative angular distances. Logically, the use of precession-corrected positions will make it impossible for others to reproduce my results with the chart of Islam using the tropical zodiac only for the chart comparisons and the modern transits to it.

This may make my results look more "ambiguous" to those who think that the sidereal reference frame is a less legitimate Astrology than the tropical, but I hope that the strength of the indicators I am showing will speak for itself and show the usefulness of using precession-corrected positions. Of course I welcome a comparison with the alternative --and I hope, complementary-- tropical results.

Like in many other instances of astrological practice, I think this shows how relative is any of the models used in Astrology, since you often can produce good results using very different astrological tools to make a different model of the same situation, and while for some using sidereal positions may look several steps away from conventional acceptable practice, the use of uncorrected tropical-only positions to me would be an unacceptable and un-natural and quite illogical procedure.

As mentioned elsewhere, this is the only way I have always worked. All the comparisons and results you find in my Web site are made with precession-corrected positions. The technique is explained in a separate section of the documentation of Riyal, of which I quote the last paragraph:

<< But the situation can get very confusing when you are checking transits of more than one radix, because the transits of one radix cannot be compared with the transits of the other. This is where the use of positions in the sidereal zodiac comes in handy, and it is the reason why I show them by default in the main Riyal display. In other words, each radix establishes its own fixed zodiac, so that positions referenced to different radices cannot be compared. In this case, all one needs to do is reference all radices and transiting positions to a sidereal zodiac, and then the problem disappears.>>

Juan
 

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Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 21:26:43 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 7

Nessus, among the centaurs, is the one that more naturally could be associated with fear, horror, destructiveness, nastiness, revenge, poison, hatred, etc., all "the evil" that characterizes the Islam/Israel and the Islam/USA relationships, the "David vs Goliath" situation that engenders the martyrs, the kamikazes, what Westerners call "suicide bombers". Like Nessus, the suicide bombers are greatly misunderstood and feared, and like Nessus too, they are an expression of "the power of the weak", or like someone has called terrorism, "the B-52's of the poor".

The presence of Nessus is very strong in all this. Recall first the slightly over 1-degree Israel/Islam conjunction:

  Nessus Islam = 28,28 Aries
  Sun Israel (1948) = 29,39 Aries

which establishes a fundamental, "foundational" relationship. In the USA(Boyd)/Islam relationship (Davison) chart we find:

  Moon = 22,07 Pisces
  Nessus = 21,07 Pisces

  US(Boyd) Sun = 22,40 Gemini
  US(Sibley) Sun = 21,42 Gemini
  Saturn of the Fatwa = 22,48 Pisces

and when Desert Storm began:

  Nessus = 21,03 Virgo

It would be natural to find Nessus directly associated also with the WTC attack:

  Mars Islam = 14,48 Virgo
  Nessus WTC = 14,40 Sagittarius

and logically in Bin Laden's Fatwa:

  Nessus Fatwa = 28,24 Scorpio
  True Black Moon Desert Storm = 28,14 Scorpio

(remember Mars Fatwa=28 Aquarius, Neptune US-Boyd=28 Leo, Uranus/Neptune Islam = 27,44 Leo)

Pylenor is conjunct Pluto in the chart of Islam:

  Pylenor Islam = 15,53 Aries
  Pluto Islam = 16,52 Aries
  Mars Desert Storm = 15,33 Cancer

This ties directly with Israel:

  Nessus Israel = 16,34 Aries

All this, in my opinion, is a conspicuous and consistent presence of Nessus!

For many individuals of Palestine and of Afghanistan, dying as a martyr by a suicide attack is a cause of honor and personal fulfillment; for the West, a cause of horror, a greatly misunderstood act that is actually a spiritual and exemplary consummation for those who live in a culture where misery and getting killed and abused by a physically superior enemy [a very good description of the way humans traditionally have treated wild animals] is an everyday experience from the start of life.

As an Islamic expert recently said in the radio: "they will have to kill them all, and they will feel good for having died that way."

Juan
 

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Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 06:52:18 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] testing the chart of Islam, 8 and final.

Remember that the Sun/Mars opposition of the conference of San Remo 80 years ago, when Imperial powers divided among themselves the Arab nations, Hylonome of Islam was in exact conjunction:

  Mars = 7,18 Libra (sidereal)
  Sun = 7, 18 Aries
  Hylonome of Islam = 6,37 Libra

to which I suggested "the sacrificial victim", "the cry of the poor" as an example taken from my list of Hylonome keywords.

When Desert Storm began, we find the following:

  Hylonome = 20,57 Leo
  Moon of Islam = 21,33 Leo

The destruction of Saddam Hussein's army and Iraqi infrastructure, and the killing of thousands of Iraqi civilians that inaugurated the more than 1 million civilian deaths that have resulted from the 10 year-long embargo, was perpetrated in the name of justice, under the excuse of pulling Iraq out of Kuwait, USA's justice (same as now with a different excuse and a different Arab nation):

  Moon of Islam = 21,33 Leo
  US Varuna (Boyd chart) = 20,38 Leo
  US Varuna (July 4th 1776) = 21,39 Leo

The references to the staggering effects on the civil population of the embargo imposed on Iraq by the USA can be found in many places in the Internet. I mentioned it in a message posted in the centaurs forum 22 Sep 2001 03:03:20 -0600. I quote this message here in its entirety:

Aware of the rumors circulating these days that it was probably Irak and not Bin Laden the power behind the recent attack on the US., I wanted to gather some concrete data about civilian casualties in Iraq during and as a result of the Gulf War.

The list of US terrorist actions committed against civilians in other countries is very large, almost endless; but I will stick to recent Irak only in this post, putting aside all the lies and predatory rhetorics of politicians and the manipulated press.

The US has been carrying on a relentless and vindictive starvation of civilians warfare (called "embargo" by the hypocrites) against Irak, a tactic that they have often used in the past in many countries. As a result of this, it is estimated that 5000 children die of starvation and disease each month in Irak.

Civil Iraqui casualties during "Desert Storm" are estimated to be between 5000 and 15000. Nobody knows, and nobody seems to care. I never understood why, pretending to drive Saddam Husein out of Kuwait, the US directly attacked Baghdad, killing thousands of innocent civilians.

King Hussein of Jordan had already reached an agreement with Saddam Husein for the Irakis to withdraw from Kuwait, yet Mr. George Bush stepped over it and decided to launch his war. King Hussein explained this himself in a CNN interview at the time.

On February 13, 1991, U.S. stealth fighter-bombers "surgically obliterated" the Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad, burning alive about 1,000 civilians who had taken refuge there, most of them women and children. This was called by Mr. George Bush "acceptable collateral damage".

   http://www.thewinds.org/archive/war/a021997c.html

<<One of the most graphic and heinous crimes of the Gulf War occurred on the highway between Mutlaa, Kuwait and Basra, Iraq, also known as "The Highway of Death." As the U.S. began its land assault, Iraq announced that it would comply with U.N. resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers as well as Iraqi, Palestinian, Jordanian and other civilians piled into whatever vehicles they could commandeer, including a fire truck, and fled north towards Iraq. U.S. planes disabled vehicles at both ends of the convoy, creating a 7-mile long traffic jam. U.S. planes then began to bomb and strafe the entire line of some 2,000 vehicles for hours, killing thousands of helpless soldiers and civilians while encountering no resistance and receiving no losses to themselves. "Another 60-mile stretch of road to the east was strewn with the remnants of tanks, armored cars, trucks, ambulances and thousands of bodies following an attack on convoys on the night of February 25, 1991. The press reported that no survivors are known or likely. One flatbed truck contained nine bodies, their hair and clothes were burned off, skin incinerated by heat so intense it melted the windshield onto the dashboard." (ibid). These atrocities were in direct violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, common article 3, which outlaws the killing of soldiers who are "out of combat", not to mention civilians.>>

But as the author of the above account says, <<never in the history of warfare have the victors been held accountable for their war crimes and atrocities.>>

Now watch Afghanistan, and see how the richest and most powerful nation in the world humiliates one of the poorest and the most devastated, once it has stopped working for them.

Usually, and very blatantly in this case, the sin of which one accuses the other is also my own sin. There is no question of the atrocities committed by other nations and by corrupt rulers upon their own nations, but there is no question either about the predatory destruction and violence perpetrated by the US against many other nations. The examples are very numerous to be ignored or forgotten.

When the Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad was destroyed by 2 consecutive "intelligent" bombs, incinerating alive about 1200 mostly women and children, we find:

  Sun = 29,13 Capricorn
  Nessus of Islam = 28,28 Aries

The data and the description of the Amiriya shelter bombing is found in a message with this title I posted 22 Sep 2001. It should be added here as a complement. From that post:

The Amiriya shelter bombing, according to one eye-witness account, occurred "just before dawn" and killed 1186 mostly women and children. One source gives an exact hour: 4:30 a.m.

   http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=6962

<<At about 4.30 a.m. a Stealth bomber attacked the shelter with a laser guided missile, blasting a hole through the roof and ceiling, and exploding in the shelters hospital on a lower level.
<<A few minutes later, a second missile was delivered precisely through the hole made by the first. The explosion of the second missile blasted shut the 6 ton, half-metre-thick steel doors, and incinerated several hundred people on the upper level, many of whom actually evaporated in the few thousand degree heat generated by the explosion. Several hundred people on the lower level were boiled to death by the water from the vast boilers destroyed in the blast.
<<It is not known for certain how many civilians were killed that night in the Amiriya shelter: the written record of the people who had sought refuge from the nightly bombing had itself been stored in the supposed safety of the building, and now was no more. What is known is that before 13 February 1500 people signed into the shelter every night. After the massacre, eleven injured people, thrown out of the shelter by the blast, were found; and over a deeply harrowing period of several hours the mutilated black remains of 403 people were retrieved from the building. Thus it was estimated that several hundred people were burnt and evaporated into nothingness, with no means of determining their identities or even their precise numbers. Later witnesses -- including Tom Dalyell, a British Labour Member of Parliament -- described the carbonated imprints of women and children on the walls of the shelter. The imprints of tiny feet and hands are charred into the walls and ceilings; and on the walls at the lower level the tide mark of the water from the burst tanks is marked by a 5-foot high scum of human flesh.>>

13 February 1991, 4:30 a.m. Baghdad time is 01:30 GMT.  Baghdad is 33n21/44e25. Sunrise occurred at 6h53m Baghdad time, 3h53m GMT (I am assuming a 3h difference from Greenwich).

The destruction of the bomb shelter full of civilians --like yesterday's destruction of the Red Cross warehouse in Khabul after the second or third "intelligent" bombing --was called by the Bush administration "collateral damage", the same phrase used later by Timothy McVeigh when asked about the children who died in Oklahoma.

The soldiers and pilots were received and hailed as heroes in the US:

  Desert Storm Neptune = 20,06 Sagittarius
  Amiriya Neptune = 21,03 Sagittarius
  USA "mythical" or popular chart (Sibley) Sun = 21,42 Gemini.

I know that some of the phrases I use, like the last one above, can be very provocative and hurt the sensibility of a lot of people, so I will stop the series on "Testing the chart of Islam" here. There is no need to go on, and I would like to write a final commentary.

further examination of the Islam horoscope will be found in the collection of posts called "Chechnya":
http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/mundane/chechenia.html
 

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EPILOG

One of the results of this research, to me at least, is seeing how clearly the situation is described by the chart of Islam from AD 622. I think many lessons can be learned from this about the nature of these societies. No matter what we think the "true" Islam or the rest of Islam is, as far as I am concerned, it is a fact that the situation is shown by that map.

My original intention of testing the horoscope of Islam of AD 622 to see if it was valid has been fulfilled. This horoscope is very much alive, and what is more important, it is very useful, at least when one applies it accounting for precession as I have done. An a priori negative judgement based on its antiquity would be understandable, but Islam's paradigms seem to be very different from ours even astrologically. Apparently, Islam's extraordinary "fixism" (fundamentalism, conservatism) and universal unity through a common faith (=Sun/Varuna) are the reasons why this horoscope works so well in astrologically charting the present conflict.

From the reactions to quoting one part of Bin Laden's "fatwa" (it actually contains many "fatwas" according to its editors), I concluded that very few people had read it. Most are simply led by what the Press says. I didn't quote anything that was offensive in any way, just the part with which I --and I am sure many Muslims-- completely agreed, dealing with the US role in the Middle East, and it was nothing new, nothing that cannot be read in many geo-political commentaries around the world and in the US. Political Science is not based on what the official Press releases say, but in the critical analysis of what historically and documentarily have been the true intentions of world powers in the Middle East.

The Fatwa may seem to be a politically incorrect astrological reference point, but there is no doubt that Bin Laden has been made the most famous terrorist of all times, and his document, as I think has become evident astrologically, is a very good "radical" --when combined with the US War chart and with the chart of Islam-- in the effort to understand better the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism against America and against Israel. I think I have shown its relative astrological usefulness with respect to what in my opinion is a lot of worthless speculation about his birth date.

I don't blame those who have been angered by some of the commentaries I have written. I don't claim objectivity in any of my interpretations (as opposed to finding the astrological indicators) and am not interested in it. I think it is impossible to pretend "objectivity" or "impartiality" when doing astrological interpretions of political events. My intention is not to anger anyone, but definitely to challenge the view of those who show what in my opinion is a total incapacity to understand the Arab or Muslim point of view. How do you think an Arab, whose family has been killed by American bombs or weapons or whose home has been arbitrarily bulldozed, feels about the things that are said in the Press about their heroes and martyrs, and when President Bush says it is not his intention to harm them? I don't claim to understand it myself, but I wanted to try, and this series was the result. I wrote what I saw, what I found, what I think, and what I feel. Some may think that this was not the right time to do it, but, to me, personally, it was exactly the right time to do it.

Recently I saw a detailed CNN report where you could see government-sponsored training camps in Lebanon (I think it was Lebanon), and how the widows were maintained by the local government, and the enlarged portraits of the "martyrs" were shown high in the city streets and their families were honored. Their children wanted to imitate them, and the various people interviewed were trying to explain the philosophy of it.

Western lack of faith and extreme materialism was one of the reasons given by the head of the training camps for the difficulty the reporter had in understanding all that. Logically, this is not the whole of Islam, but it is not so difficult to understand when one considers the history of these communities.

One of them said so naturally and with a shining face: when you have to fight a tank with your bare hands, what else can you do? You wrap your body with bombs, and make of your body a tank!

I tried to offer a perspective based on short or sketchy interpretations with which to understand the role of some of the main centaurs that have proved to be the leading protagonists of the conflict: Pylenor, Nessus, Hylonome, and Chariklo. All these interpretations are open and have multiple possibilities of meaning. To me, it is fascinating to see the perspective that the centaurs so eloquently give about this, as if they were saying: Hey! This is us! We are the parias of the world! Look at us dying, we have power in our weakness, and this death is our glory!

I have no interest in judging, much less in being "impartial" or "objective". I am interested in them, I want to feel closer to them, to understand them. I overflow and can reach to them in the only way I can. This is what I always do as an astrologer. This is what I have done all my life.

Princess of Wales: -- "The King desires peace."
William Wallace: -- "Longshanks desires peace?"
Princess of Wales: -- "He declared this to me, I swear it.
He proposes that you withdraw your attack.
In return he grants you title, states,
and this measure of gold that I am to pay you personally."
William Wallace: --  "A lordship, and titles, gold... that I should become Judas."
Princess of Wales: -- "Peace is made in such ways."
William Wallace: -- "Slaves are made in such ways!"
[from "Braveheart".]

Juan Antonio Revilla
San José, Costa Rica, 29 de octubre del 2001

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NOTES ON THE DATA USED FOR CALCULATING THE CHART

In "The Book of World Horoscopes"(p.540 of the 2nd edition, 1996), Nicholas Campion says the following about the chart of Islam:

<<THE MUSLIM ERA: The Moslem era is dated from Sunset, 16 July 622 AD, the traditional date of Mohhamed's arrival in Medina.  In spite of the fact that Mohhamed in fact arrived in Medina on 2 July, the beginning of the Moslem era describes the future of Islam and Chart 465 is therefore drawn for approximate Sunset, 6.45 pm, 16 July 622 in Medina.>>

This paragraph contains several errors.

The date "July 16, 622" is not when the Hegira traditionally ended nor when it started.  It is the beginning of the year in the Arabic Calendar in which the Hegira took place, regardless of the Hegira's exact dates.  In other words, it is the equivalent of our "January 1st" of the year in which the events of the Hegira happened. This was the reasoning of Mohammed's personal collaborator 'Umar I and his advisors, when the Islamic Era and calendar were inaugurated by them in AD 638.

September 24 is given by the Britannica as the date in which Mohammed arrived at Medina. One Internet source says: <<according to the Hadith [=collection of sayings of the Prophet], the first man to witness the arrival of Muhammad in Medina on 12 Rabi (24 September) 622 and to announce the news was a Jew.>>. This is therefore without question the traditional date of arrival, although the most frequent statement in the sources I could consult is simply that the events of the Hijra took place in September or "early fall" of the year 622.

Part of the confusion may come from the original source of the "Horoscope of Islam", the one quoted by Michael O'Reilly in the April 1991 issue of "American Astrology", where he says it is "attributed to Mark Lerner", because this chart (July 16, 622) is calculated for the coordinates of Medina (39e36/24n28), and not those of Mecca (39e48/21n27); it also says that it represents the day when Mohammed arrived at Medina. This erroneous assertion, apparently from Mark Lerner, may have mislead other astrological authors.

Regarding the exact dates of the Hegira, in addition to the date of its conclusion on the arrival at Medina that we already have (September 24th, allegedly found in the Hadith) we find other dates in a very detailed account in "AR-RaheeQ Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar) - Memoirs of the Noble Prophet, by Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, detail life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)". Here we find:

- he left Mecca: "Safar 27th" = September 10/11
- arrived at Quba: "8th Rabi‘ Al-Awwal" = September 20/21

NOTE: the conversions to the Julian Calendar in this source are wrong. To make the conversions, I have used the program "Computus" by Gerhard Behrens.

<<As soon as the news of Muhammad’s arrival [at Quba] began to spread, crowds came flocking out of Madinah. They would come every morning and wait eagerly for his appearance until forced by the unbearable heat of the midday sun to return. One day they had gone as usual, and after a long wait and watch they retired to the city when a Jew, catching a glimpse of three travellers clad in white winding their way to Madinah , shouted from the top of a hillock: "O you people of Arabia!  Your grandfather has come!  He, whom you have been eagerly waiting for, has come!". The Muslims immediately rushed holding their weapons, (to defend him).  The joyful news soon spread through the city and people marched forward to greet their noble guest.>> [ref. above]

This means, apparently, that "Quba" is somewhere outside of or vey near Medina. A further quote clarifies all this:

<<According to the investigations of the late Mahmood Pasha al-Falaki of Egypt, the day when Muhammad Mustafa, the Messenger of God, arrived in Quba was Monday, 8th of Rabi-I of the year 13 of the Proclamation, a date which corresponds to September 20, 622. On the following Friday, 12th of Rabi-I (September 24), the Messenger of God left Quba, and entered Yathrib. He was lodged at the house of Abu Ayyub, as already noted.>> [emphasis mine. ref.: "Restatement of History of Islam. The First Year of Hijra", http://www.al-islam.org/restatement/19.htm]

All this is really inconsequential anyway, because the exact date of the beginning of the Islamic Era is a question of converting between calendars, and from the above we know that the "July 16" date is historically accurate. About the conversion between calendars, Gerhard Behrens says the following in the documentation of "Computus":

<<The Islamic Lunar Calendar is based on the schematic rules applied in historiography (e.g. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Wuestenfeld tables etc.) with two options on the output side : Era beginning 16 July 622 (most accepted date) or 15 July 622. The difference is NOT consistently one day only (there would not have been any need for two options then) as according to the sources consulted the exact sequence of intercalary Islamic years depends on the choice of the era (first day). Anyhow, everybody aware a bit of the problems of the Islamic Lunar calendar knows that a conversion based on arithmetic or even on astronomic data has a margin of error of one day (possibly even more). (Reasons: Actual sighting of the moon in different regions by different people; overlapping of days due to the beginning of the new Islamic day at sunset vs. midnight in modern chronology). Therefore, the day of the week is always given as a convenient method of control.>> [emphasis mine]

With this explanation in mind, we can examine the most detailed historical account I found, a web page entitled <<Hakim Muhammed Said: The History of the Islamic Calender in the Light of the Hijra>> [Al-Serat: The History of the Islamic Calendar in the Light of the Hijra. Hakim Muhammad Said. Vol X No. 1 , Spring 1984. Reprinted, by courtesy of the editor, from Hamdard Islamicus, vol. IV, no.3 {1981)].

<<An agreement was reached to institute the era of the rule of Islam, beginning with the Hijra of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina. There are no such differences of opinion with regard to the date of the Hijra as there are with regard to the time when the call first came to Muhammad and with regard to the day and year of his birth. And although the date of his death is fixed, it is no pleasant thought to use (such a sad event) as the beginning of the era. The Hijra, moreover, coincided in time with the success of the religion (millah) of Islam, the frequent arrival of embassies, and the Muslim ascent to Power. It is a time of blessings and a very impressive (historical) event. The Hijra took place on Tuesday, Rabi 1, 8th. The first of that year -that is, al-Muharram-fell on a Thursday according to the average (calculation). After this had become generally known, it was considered (the correct date). However, according to observation (of the new moon) and astronomical(?) calculation, the day fell on a Friday. The author of the Nihayat al-idrak said that (the Hijra) was used, and for all future times the era was counted from it. Agreement on this matter was reached in the year 17 of the Hijra, the fourth year of the caliphate of 'Umar. Until then, each year (after the Hijra) was called after its main event, and this was used for dating purposes. The first year of the Prophet's residence in Medina was thus called: 'The permission to travel'. The second year was called: 'The year of the command to fight'. The third year: 'The year of the test', and so on. Afterwards, the custom of naming the year after the main events was abandoned.>>

Using the program "Computus" of Gerhard Behrens, one knows that Rabi I, 8th corresponds to Monday, September 20, 622. Since the text says it was Tuesday, one concludes that it happened at night or during sunset, which would make it the next day in their calendar. This proves that the counting is exactly from July 16, and not July 15th, therefore July 16, 622, is the historically accurate zero point of the Islamic Era and calendar.

In my study, I used the "Lerner" chart's coordinates, but fortunately, because of the approach I followed, the difference is insignificant:

The chart, done for Mecca is:
GMT = 15h 59m 12s
LMT = 18h 38m (true solar time = 18h 35m)
Moon = 27,02 Leo (tropical)

The chart done for Medina is:
GMT = 16h 05m 38s
LMT = 18h 44m (true solar time = 18h 41m)
Moon = 27,06 Leo

Having clarified this, I can conclude that the choice of Medina or Mecca for erecting the chart is a question of personal judgement or preference, although personally I do not see why it should be made for Medina, since the holy shrines of Mecca are unquestionably the heart of Islam.