“What we have here,” said an irascible friend as we watched video news clips of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, “is God’s Chosen battling the Party of God.” 

        I, meanwhile, was thinking that what we were watching had to do with varieties of viewpoint and the transits of Saturn and Pluto. 
     Israel officially became a nation on May 14, 1948.  Hezbollah’s exact founding date is unknown but it first surfaced as a fighting force in September 1982 to wage guerilla warfare against invading Israeli troops then.  

     Whether one believes the Jewish, Muslim or any other version of this conflict depends on one’s perspective or viewpoint.  Which, in turn, depends on one’s information sources and beliefs. 

Growing up in the USA or Europe, one learns the Jewish version of history, found in the Bible.  Arabs learn the Muslim version, found in the Koran.  These two versions – although both are about the same creator of the universe – create two opposed perspectives: “God’s Chosen” as the Jews were described in the Bible, battling “the Party of God,” as Hezbollah translates into English.  Words can be such slippery, amorphous devils that my idea of God and yours may be as different as day and night. 

Another version focuses on that magnificent corporate-profits generator known as the military-industrial complex.  From this perspective, Israel and Hezbollah are proxies for the US and Iranian militaries, testing weapons systems and tactics in preparation for a possible US attack on Iran as one of President Bush’s famous “axis of evil” nations. 

     In novel writing, viewpoint is a technique.  You might create two characters as opposed as Jews and Muslims and reveal the beliefs which create each one’s perspective by a skillful use of viewpoint. 
In politics, viewpoint is the heart of xenophobia.  The assumption is, “We are good, they are evil.”  Or, as George W. Bush put it, “You’re either with us or with the enemy.” 

God’s Newsletter

     Like novel writing, astrological analysis demands we detach from political xenophobic.  “God’s newsletter,” as astrology has been called, is difficult to decipher, for we are exploring the dark and mysterious realm of yin, opposite the bright, scientifically verifiable realm of yang. (http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/yinyang.htm)

     The problem with the yang realm is that it cannot resolve opposing perspectives like the Arab-Jewish conflict, since each devotee believes he/she is absolutely right.  Conversely, the problem with the yin realm is that there is no way to discern absolute right or wrong – yin reality is a nuanced mix of immeasurable qualities. 

One dilemma for astrologers is that the absolutely correct scientific exists simultaneous with the mysteriously nuanced yin reality.  Another is that yin and yang interpenetrate, change, metamorphose into one another, as day becomes night at sunset, night becomes day at dawn.   

     Analyzing the two charts of Israel and Hezbollah (and cognizant that Hazbollah’s isn’t precise) we find that both were “born” under conjunctions of Saturn and Pluto.  That conjunction occurred in Leo for the founding of Israel in 1948, and in Libra for the founding of Hezbollah in 1982.  Saturn and Pluto come conjunct in cycles averaging 33.8 years. 

To the scientific mind operating in the yang realm, there is no meaning to be derived from a conjunction by the cycles of these planets as seen from Earth, and in fact many scientists scoff at astrological Signs and do not consider Pluto a planet at all. 

Pluto is the smallest planet circling our Sun.  Saturn is the outermost planet visible to the naked eye.  With telescopes, Pluto replaced Saturn as most distant from us.  

Before telescopes and the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, Saturn was called The Great Satan and The Great Teacher.  Saturn’s hard angles bring difficulties, frustrations, problems to be solved, economic dislocations, hard times, even poverty and death. 

Perceived Needs

     Once Pluto was discovered in 1930 and its orbit calculated, it became possible to peer back in history and note where it had been for this or that major event, and what sort of moods it brought in various angles to other planets.  Out of this ongoing study come descriptions of Pluto’s influence: birth of the new, transformation, death, inevitable change. 

     Saturn demands structure; Pluto demands change.  Their conjunction is like an immovable object together with an unstoppable force.  Their opposition and/or “full moon” cycles more dramatically illustrate their contrasting influences - the attacks of 9/11/02 being the most recent example of inevitable change colliding with the immovable.  

When Pluto’s unstoppable aligns with Saturn’s immovable, we can expect major adjustments in the yang realm of geopolitics.  When changes perceived as needed by Hezbollah demand the opposite of changes perceived as needed by Israel, we get major events such as the June 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon to find and kill Hezbollah guerillas, in retaliation for capturing two Israeli soldiers, in retaliation for Arabs captured by Israel.

“He hit me first.”
“No, he hit me first.”    
Warfare will not end this ancient xenophobic conflict.  Assuming Israel’s American-supplied, high-tech and overwhelming military force will succeed in killing enough believers to squash Hezbollah, it will not change the beliefs of Hezbollah’s Muslim supporters, nor their supporters throughout the world.  Likewise, believers in the Israeli cause will not be moved by the guerrilla attacks of Hezbollah freedom fighters. 
So what we have in both charts, it seems, is Pluto’s overwhelming force aligned with Saturn’s rock-hard convictions. 

Israel on June 22, 2006

     Israel’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction, flanked by the Moon and Mars, is a strong indication of its ability to wage war with Plutonian force and Saturnian organization and efficiency.  The Israeli military is also another example of “Your Tax Dollars At Work,” as the US government funds it.  

     As this latest in the long series of battles between Israel and its Arab enemies began on June 22, 2006, it was hard to see how the mightiest military in the Middle East would not make short work of Hezbollah.  Unless, that is, you examined the astrology involved. 
Israel’s natal conjunction in Leo of Saturn and Pluto was being hit by transiting Mars and Saturn conjunct, Neptune and Chiron opposite, with all four square T Jupiter in Scorpio, conjunct Israel’s Ascendant.  Moreover the Moon early this day was in Taurus, forming a square to Israel’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction.  The planets thus arranged did not bode well for Israel.  The grand cross to Israel’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction by Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron and the Moon could hardly be worse for such an undertaking.  On the positive side, Pluto this day was conjunct Israel’s Jupiter in Sagittarius with both forming a very helpful trine to Israel’s Mars in Leo, which is conjunct by Sign Israel’s Saturn, Pluto and Moon.

Of course there are lots of other positions and aspects to be analyzed in Israel’s chart – I am focusing on the Saturn-Pluto conjunction as the most indicative. 

When Hezbollah arose in response to the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Saturn and Pluto had cycled into their next conjunction, this time in Libra.  On June 22, 2006 transiting Pluto was conjunct Hezbollah’s Neptune in the 1st house ruled by Sagittarius, forming a 60-degree sextile to Hezbollah’s natal Pluto.  The conjunction that day of Mars and Saturn in Leo was forming a helpful trine to Hezbollah’s Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius Ascendant.  Jupiter had returned to its natal Hezbollah position in Scorpio, with both forming a trine to Uranus in Pisces.  The transiting planets were much more favorable to Hezbollah this day than to Israel. 

Propaganda Disbelieved

As this war began, Israel and US media propagated the idea that the Lebanese people would blame Hezbollah for the Israeli bombing of their civilians and infrastructure.  A decade ago, this propaganda might have been believed.  But in today’s Internet-connected world, millions of people had access to individuals in Lebanon with camcorders and picture-taking cell phones, who broadcast a very different viewpoint of events as they were unfolding. 

Also, Arab TV news networks had arisen in the past two decades, and their coverage was accessible by many in Europe and America as well as in Arab countries.  The result of these added perspectives was to make the Israeli version of events appear self-delusional, in keeping with what could be expected from Neptune opposite Israel’s Saturn-Pluto. 

Hezbollah proved a much stronger adversary than Israel (and its American supporters) expected.  A yang-rational analysis of the overwhelming military hardware Israel brought to this war could only conclude that Hezbollah didn’t stand a chance.  But from an astrological yin perspective, the opposition of Neptune to Israel’s overwhelming Saturn-Pluto power was up against Hezbollah’s Saturn-Pluto trine to Neptune.  The opposition indicates delusion, the trine inspiration. 

While Israel dealt with the delusional side of Neptune, Hezbollah dealt with the intuitive and inspirational aspects of Neptune’s many, mysterious and sometimes conflicting influences.  
American and European government officials, led by the US and France, drafted a United Nations agreement for Israel and Lebanon to cease hostilities.  The US and Israel would not negotiate with Hezbollah, nor with its backers, the governments of Syria and Iran.  The US and Israel viewpoint is that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and should be eliminated, period. 

Groping the Elephant

This authoritarian attitude bodes ill for the future of the region, as Arabs and Muslims keenly remember that their lands have been dominated, and their national borders carved out by Western colonialists for the past century.  Most Middle Eastern governments are funded by and obedient to US interests, although their populations – called “the Arab street” in US media – are seething with potential revolution.  Hazbollah became the hero of the Arab street when the mighty Israeli military could not find a way to terminate them. 

Given dramatically increased demand for oil and diminishing reserves in the Middle East, it’s likely that China, Russia and other nations will supply anti-Israel and anti-American entities with more advanced weapons.  It’s also likely that Arabs and Muslims will not lose their determination to avenge wrongs as perceived from their viewpoint.
Given that a Saturn-Pluto conjunction has existed during the last two Israeli-Arab conflicts, what of the next?   

Saturn and Pluto will next come conjunct at 22 Capricorn on January 12, 2020.  This one will square Hezbollah’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction and be forming a 150-degree inconjunction to the Israeli Saturn-Pluto. Advantage: Israel. 

However, Israel has been financially supported and militarily supplied by the USA, and the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 will form an opposition to the USA’s Sun, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury in Cancer.  This opposition will follow a long Uranus-Pluto square afflicting sensitive points in the USA’s natal pattern, indicating an economic upiheaval and socially tumultuous time during the 2000-teens.  America will have its hands full dealing with domestic problems and may not be disposed to provide much support to Israel by 2020. 
The sad irony is that the Holy Land is sacred to the world’s three monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  All are believers in Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton’s single God, although each has a different word for this concept.  And each has explored the religious yin realm and come up with different narratives about this one God. 

The rational thing to do would be for all three religions to agree that this land is holy and share it, each honoring the others’ narratives about it.  But we humans, for all our supposed belief in the rational, have long demonstrated that we can act with utter irrationality and later justify our behavior with rationalizations. 

Exploring the yin realm of reality in search of God, it seems we humans resemble the blind men describing the elephant in the Hindu story.  All humans everywhere down through time have brought from the yin abstract realm the concept of a divine creator – the problem, it seems, is that such an idea cannot be seen, weighed or measured in the yang realm.  And so we go on battling like the blind men groping the elephant, each convinced by his own perspective.