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| Hamas attacks Israel at dawn on Oct. 7th. |
“It was a poor dawn...”--Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin (Ret.)
If you frequent this site, you’ll know that my original plan this week was to discuss the upcoming April, 2024 total eclipse, which would then complete the broader eclipse topic we began in the October 1st post here. As it happened, however, on October 7th, the terrorist group Hamas staged an horrific, multi-pronged attack on Israeli civilians and others, took hundreds of hostages and butchered innocents in a display of shocking savagery. At least 1,300 people have died, including 25 Americans and counting. Springing into action almost instantly, Israel called in 300,000 military reserves, formed an emergency government and declared war against Hamas.
So it goes without saying that this post had to be focused on this shocking course of events; to my mind, we have to offer more than prayers and condolences because there simply are no words for such breathtaking evil. We can only offer our shoulders for comfort, and hope that they are broad enough.
Perhaps here we can try to understand more deeply what just happened and what its longer term impacts could be.
For starters, we may want to consider the events of October 7th within the context of the aggressive eclipse season we are about to enter on October 14th. At this moment, there is no end in sight for the war that Israel has declared against Hamas; indeed, the October 14th eclipse is likely to carry it forward and it could very well be raging on next April, when the militant looking Aries total eclipse cuts across the U.S. Having mustered their entire reserves for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, Israelis are throwing themselves all in on this fight; the question going forward might be, to what extent will the U.S. and other powers become directly involved?
Only time will tell, but after studying the charts to be considered below, I am struck by the interesting ties--astrological and otherwise--that exist between the U.S. and Israel, most of them due to the fact that Israel was founded during America's coming of age as a world power just after WWII.
Indeed, the events of October 7th remind us that 20th-21st century civilization itself is at a very vulnerable crossroads: just as the barbarism of WWII demanded an entirely re-invented world order and global institutions built to safeguard and stabilize that order, so the terrorism and barbarism of the October 7th attacks now threaten to unleash chaos not only in Israel, but on that entire world order.
Pres. Biden referred to the Hamas attacks as "sheer evil" and pledged U.S. support.
Clearly, "having Israel's back," as Pres. Biden committed to so strongly this week, will greatly test our diplomatic skills, our ethical core and our geopolitical clout as a nation. It will challenge our ability to coalesce around leaders who can actually lead. But astrologically, this challenge seems to have our name on it--a story for another day soon. For now, however, what's the alternative? To stand neutrally by and watch the barbaric events of October 7th, 2023 become the norm? I hold out hope that we're better than that.
For now, let's take a good look at two charts that are relevant for the heinous attacks on Israel--first, the chart for the 6:30 a.m. attack by itself (Chart 1) and then, the Biwheel that places this attack chart alongside the State of Israel's 1948 radix chart.
Chart 1. Hamas attacks Israel, October 7, 2023, 6:30 a.m. DST, Tel Aviv, Israel. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0 with Tropical Equal houses and True Node, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.
This heinous attack by the terrorist group Hamas began just minutes after dawn in Israel, as we can see from the Sun rising at the Libra ASC, widely opposed to Aries Chiron, situated in the 7th house of open enemies. That opposition only tightened as the week wore on and Israel declared it would wage a war of retaliation against Hamas—or as the war is being called, a “total siege” of Gaza. The impulse to retaliate is one of the darker potentials of a 1st-7th house relationships, but it’s a blindingly visceral impulse in this situation.
Venus rules this Libra rising chart from the power-brokering 11th in staunch Leo, and for a variety of reasons, she is helping here to unleash the so-called “dogs of war.” There’s her sextile to and disposing of Libra Mars, brooding in that detrimental sign and close to the south end of a belligerent looking Aries-Libra nodal axis; there’s her square to 8th house Taurus Uranus Rx, reflecting the shocking amount of carnage that ensued.
Perhaps just as troublingly, there’s Venus at the focal point of an intense Yod with 6th house Pisces Neptune and 4th house Capricorn Pluto. It’s quickly becoming clear that the global geopolitics of Israel’s situation with Hamas are also horrifically personal and societal: this Pluto also t-squares the Aries-Libra Nodal axis that cuts across the 1-7 axis here. Israel will apparently be damned if it does seek out normal, peaceful relations with nations in that region and damned if it doesn’t.
Indeed, some speculate that efforts to derail this Israel-Saudi agreement lie at the heart of the horrific attacks this week. Could it be significant that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is getting involved on behalf of Gaza but chose not to condemn the actions of Hamas? This morning, Foreign Policy published a piece entitled “Israel-Hamas conflict tests Abraham Accords,” reporting that:
“Gheit, a former Egyptian foreign minister during the final years of Hosni Mubarak’s presidency, traveled to Moscow on Sunday to discuss the situation in Gaza with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They agreed to partner to ‘stop the bloodshed.’”
In other words, the road ahead for Israel’s retaliatory war will be fraught with complexities and geopolitical entanglements, including a former U.S. president who’s apparently decided to exploit the moment for political gain. On the 12th, NYTimes.com covered Donald Trump’s comments to a rally of “superfans” in Florida, in which he expressed support for Israel’s war, but at the same time took the opportunity to bash Israel leader Netanyahu for his decision to back out of participating in the drone-strike killing of Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in 2020. If bringing up a festering grudge wasn't crass enough, given the current situation, Trump proceeded to complete the project of making Israel’s unspeakable tragedy all about him:
“But, in a new flourish, Mr. Trump then tied the current conflict to his conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election.
‘If the election wasn’t rigged,” he said, “there would be nobody even thinking about going into Israel.’
Obviously, he’s not giving up on his delusionary “election rigging” grudge, either—but I digress. With friends like Trump... let’s get back to the astrology.
Because it’s clearly impossible to assess this attack without considering the context (including frenemies like Trump), we’ll now shift to examining Biwheel 1 below, setting Chart 1 around the radix chart for Israel provided by Nicholas Campion in his Book of World Horoscopes. [1]
Biwheel 1. (inner wheel) State of Israel, May 14, 1948, 2:00 p.m. ST, Tel Aviv, Israel. Source: Nicholas Campion, Book of World Horoscopes, Chart #163, p. 167; (outer wheel) Hamas attacks Israel, October 7, 2023, 6:30 a.m. DST, Tel Aviv, Israel. Source: news of the day.
Stunning associations leap off the page here, even from the first glance. Israel’s radix chart (inner wheel) also features Libra rising, only from a later degree, a degree that just happens to closely conjoin the October 14th “ring of fire” eclipse we’re anticipating in a couple days (as I write this on 10/12), perhaps reflecting the palpable sense among Israelis that they’re now facing an existential crisis.
This ASC is squared by Attack Pluto Rx (outer wheel, Capricorn) and inconjoined by both Attack Uranus Rx (Taurus) and Attack Neptune Rx (Pisces), mirroring somewhat (the ASC is disposed by Venus) the Yod formed in Chart 1 with Venus at the focal point. That Yod persists in the Biwheel, too, of course, with Attack Venus (Leo) pulling Israel’s radix Mars (Leo) into the fray via conjunction. These potent fiery points thus represent a call to arms for Israel and form one point of an interchart Grand Fire Trine, with radix Jupiter in Sagittarius (the chart’s most dignified planet) and the Attack No. Node-radix Pallas conjunction in Aries, falling at Israel’s radix DSC. The amassing of Israeli forces on the Gaza border leaves very little to the imagination.
Israeli tanks on the Gaza border
Shooting through the heart of this fiery grand trine to form a Kite configuration is Israel’s radix Jupiter-Uranus opposition (Sagittarius-Gemini). Notice that Mars, Jupiter and Pallas already form a radix grand fire trine for Israel, but here, Attack Venus seems to have emboldened this configuration for maximum expression.
So, as we’ve already seen happening, there’s little doubt the missiles will continue to fly with all this aggressive, unleashed energy...the challenge will be to contain the conflict, especially given that radix Uranus—as the 4th planet of the Kite noted above—may deeply influence how Israel proceeds with its war on Hamas. No holds barred? Shock offensives? Advanced technologies? Total acquisition of the Gaza strip? All of the above?
Whatever the path forward, all hell has now broken loose, and we can certainly see the potential for more of the same in these charts.
To intensify Israel’s sense of being under threat even further (if that’s even possible), the transiting (Attack) Nodal axis shoots across Israel’s horizon like a missile strike, landing its Aries No. Node at Israel’s DSC/7th house of enemies and retaliation, and conjunct its radix Pallas. Disposed by Aries, the attack clearly evokes for Israelis a primal howl of outrage to any sense of Justice—and for those who sought refuge from WWII in that region in the 1940s and their descendants today, this outrage will not go unanswered.
Woundedness begets woundedness
I am fully aware that Palestinians have a long list of grievances of their own in this situation, and that their losses are as tragic and outrageous as the Israelis’, yet their relationship with Hamas makes peaceful coexistence exceedingly difficult, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. The Council of Foreign Relations describes how this fateful relationship came about, as follows:
“A spin-off of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s, the Islamist militant group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after defeating its rival political party, Fatah, in elections in 2006.
The United States and European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of its armed resistance against Israel, which has included suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
The CFR also notes that “Iran provides it (Hamas) with material and financial support, and Turkey reportedly harbors some of its top leaders. Its rival party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and rules in the West Bank, has renounced violence. The split in Palestinian leadership and Hamas’s unwavering hostility toward Israel have diminished prospects for stability in Gaza.”
So, how should Israel deal with any of this, except to vigorously protect its own and its very right to exist? Jews have dealt with genocidal efforts and unfathomable evil throughout their history, and the psychic wounds suffered over those centuries sit in their collective unconscious with the heavy ferocity of Israel's radix Scorpio Chiron, which here trines Attack Moon in Cancer, cruelly wounding any sense of security. Not surprisingly, given the fears triggered by the attack, this Moon also closely t-squares Israel’s radix horizon and the Attack Nodal axis that slashes across it.
Chiron expert Martin Lass has this to say about a Scorpio Chiron:
“The Wound: The core feeling of being disconnected or abandoned by Spirit, manifesting in a deep-seated fear of loss and death. The feeling that the world is against us, others are seeking to bring us down, to plot against us, to manipulate us and/or undermine us.” [2]
Obviously, the wounds of a Scorpio Chiron are related to Pluto and its Underworld sphere of influence, which deeply wounds the Israeli Soul with a kind of cosmic paranoia. This wound is only exacerbated by Israel’s staunch radix Saturn-Pluto conjunction (this cycle was first exact in August, 1947), an indelible signifier of the new world order inspired by WWII, but also a potent reminder of the apocalyptic Beast that WWII represented for the Jewish people.
Not surprisingly, this Saturn-Pluto conjunction t-squares Israel's radix Taurus-Scorpio Nodal axis. Ever reaching for the simple pleasures of life on this Earth (Taurus), Israelis have so often found themselves dragged back by the hounds of war and existential terror (Scorpio). Thankfully, Attack Jupiter is transiting conjunct their more optimistic Taurus No. Node---perhaps an important sign that significant progress can be made at this time, despite the horrors of the current situation. Ideally, the Abraham Accords will survive this crisis and become mutually beneficial to all sides. Time will tell.
Even so, it’s no coincidence that anti-Semitism has been resurfacing with a vengeance in the U.S. and elsewhere lately: within the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has tracked such incidents for over 30 years and has this to say about the latest statistics:
“In 2022, ADL tabulated 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States. This is a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents tabulated in 2021 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. This is the third time in the past five years that the year-end total has been the highest number ever recorded.”
Every incident creates more anger and rips the ancestral wounds of the Jewish people open anew, allowing an even deeper sense of existential dread to work its heart-shattering pain. Is that really the best we can do?
Thankfully, President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have responded with great ferocity and heart to Israel’s need for true friends at this moment, and I hope they receive the credit they are due for their leadership.
Above all, our hearts and prayers go out to all who are suffering the pain of grief and loss...Y'varechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha.
Notes:
[1] Nicholas Campion, Book of World Horoscopes, Wessex Astrologer, Bournemouth, UK, 2004 ed., pp. 167-8. Chart #163, p. 167. A discussion about the accuracy of the 4 p.m. timing is found on p. 168.
[2] Martin Lass, Musings of a Rogue Comet: Chiron, Planet of Healing, Book One. Galactic Publications, Nyack, NY, 2001, p. 336.
Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and retired educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane, collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs, U.S. history, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. Her articles on these topics have appeared in several key astrology journals over the years, including most recently, the TMA blog. For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2023. All rights reserved.
