Mars Rx 2005 Wrap-Up Commentary

Mars Rx 2005 Wrap-Up Commentary
mumin_bey@yahoo.com

6:22 AM 12/14/05 Wed

With Mas now firmly in Direct motion, I thought it useful to take a look back on what this year's Retrograde transit of Mars brought us. Several important events have gone down in the just over two month period of the Red Planet's backward trek through Tropical Taurus, one of them coming dangerously close to that which I wrote about, just a few days after Mars went Rx on Oct 1 2005:

"The Essential Truths of Mars - and MenWe read in many of the textbooks, that Mars is the male principle per excellence - he is the warrior, the blacksmith, the athelete. He is also the criminal, the rapist, the thug, the lout-drunkard, who is much more a detriment to society than a benefit. While many of today's astrologers are loathe to mention the name, Mars truly is one of the "malefic" planets in our astrology. While that word sends chills up the spine of my Birkenstock wearning colleagues, they need to understand that malefic only means that you acknowledge that the planet so named has the great potential for both good and bad. And no, "all" planets DON'T have that potential. No one ever cast charts for when Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction over a national capital somewhere in the world. It's just a fact of life, that some planets have more potential impact, for better or worse, than others. And Mars is one of those planets.

Likewise, it has always been recognized for millennia, that boys needed a different kind of instruction in how to be an adult than that of girls. In this era of androngyny and political correctness, I fully realize that what I'm saying here could potentially get me stoned. But the facts as we have it regarding boys and young men are crystal clear - they need fathers to mentor them into the ways, responsibilities and rewards of manhood.

In its own sign, Aries, Mars is unrefined - the boy with talent, the young man with lots of gusto - but without direction, purpose, training, that boy will go nowhere, and worse, he do all kinds of damage. Enter Mars in Capricorn, its exaltation sign, which symbolizes man at his level best - competent, responsible, dutiful; willing to sacrifice his own desires to a higher calling and purpose, and who works hard at his craft, not just for increased material benefits but for the good of all and for his own internal sense of well-being and accomplishment. These things are what it means to be a man, and, unlike what many in our national discourse say today, they are not situational "mix n match" qualities. They are enduring and have stood the test of time, while many of the theorists' notions have begun to fray at the edges.

Please note that Mars is at his best in Capricorn - the sign of the Father. Classically, Mars and Saturn were said to be a "malefic" combination. And there is a great deal of truth to this observation: the clash of hot and cold, of gusto and temperance, of "stop and go" is vivid here. Both planets, Mars and Saturn, represent metals like iron and steel - think of the image of sharpening a knife or sword against a stone or rod. And while either could potentially be destructive, their coming together also forges a benefit for the common good (ever try to cut something with a dull knife?). On the other hand, please note that Mars is at his worst in the most feminine of all the signs, Cancer - and the past 40 years' focus on "feelings" and "self-esteem" in place of competition and learning-by-doing, just to name a few, has greatly demoralized men and boys. For anyone to deny any of this, is not only fooling themselves, but seriously running the risk of harming others. The lesson in all this? That Astrology confirms the fact that there are indeed crucial differences between the sexes, and that it would be wise for us lowly human beings to be mindful of such a powerful truth."

- Mars Retrograde & The Incredible Disappearing Man, 3:03 AM 10/3/05 Mon, by Mu'Min Bey

Before October's end, an event of unpreceedented proportions would wrack one of the world's most influential societies, clearly one of its oldest - it became to be known to some as France's Intifada. Almost a month of continuous nightly rioting took place among France's principle minority - young, Islamic, often Black men, what I like to call "Islam's Lost Boys". The riot reportedly began as the result of two young Muslim men being killed by tresspassing on a French electrical plant. The world was transfixed on the images of thousands of burnt out cars; pundits far and wide began giving their editorialized reasons as to why so much "wilding" was going on; sociologists opined that this is what happens when so many are so poor and desperate for so long; others suggested that this was the result of racism in French society; social conservative commentators argued that the riots were the long overdue results of France's allegiance to Socialistic programs and "multiculturalism"; and the most hardline among those conservative voices said flatly, that this was the dark underbelly of Islam at work. Gangsta Rap, an American invention, was even brought up as one of the Usual Suspects; in an article written by New York Times columnist David Brooks, he pointed out that Thug Life has gone Global, and that we were all bearing witness to its effects on the streets of Paris in late Oct to early Nov.

When Mars first went Retrograde - at 23 Taurus - it almost exactly opposed the French National Martian position of 25 Scorpio, placed in the 9th House of Immigration, Foreign Relations and Culture, and Religion (and square the exact Uranus-Pluto opposition running along the 1-7 House axis: France, Sep 21 1792 3.30PM LMT, Paris, Placidus 25 Cap 33). It is through the 9th House, that we also see Racism, and clearly, this was a factor in the mix, as was all of the aforementioned; clearly, no one can deny the influence of Radical Islam, or of Gangsta Rap for that matter; no one can deny what amounted to Segregation of France's largest racial, ethnic and religous minority, and now France, in many ways the center of Western Europe, now has to take a good, long, hard look at itself in the mirror with regard to how it has handled its cultural identity.

But what so many pundits and commentators and writers and observers - yes, even my astrological colleagues - didn't mention was so very obvious - WHERE are the fathers? ANY time I hear of boys/young men acting out, that's the first question I ask. By now, we all know the answer to that one, don't we? All too often, he is out of the picture, for a variety of reasons, far too many of them that make it far too easy for him not to be there.

We all know that the Family is the bedrock of any Society; and that it's Dads of any country who are literally the first line of defense in keeping and maintaining the Social Order. The various social programs and the like that have been instituted in France and elsewhere throughout the Western World, are all to greater or lesser degrees, "stand-ins" for this vital institution in civilized society - Fatherhood.

As noted, France's riots only highlighted a problem that, like those occuring in America, have taken root first among its weakest citizens, but soon to get ahold of its more stable and affluent majority; all of the cultural indices of a civilized society has been on the wane in France for many years - church attendance is at record low figures; marital & reproductive rates among native born French folks (that is, White) is at record lows; unemployment remains in the high single-digit figures for those same citizens for decades; and the "Noblese Oblige" that France has offered, through its massive welfare state system, has shown itself to be ineffective in spurring innovation, creating a sense of cohesion and belonging, and providing a system whereby people can move up through the social pecking order by means of their individual merit and effort. With France finally able to get a handle on the rioting and putting much of the country on curfew until Feb (the month when Mars finally leaves Tropical Taurus), it is my hope that the leaders of French Society look beyond easy, superficial scapegoats - the young, wilding, Gangsta Rap listening Muslim male youth - and instead take a look at its social structure overall. If they can get a handle on what I call their "Daddy problem" they'll be both on the way to healing their long ill land, as well as serving as an example to the rest of Europe, what the reclaiming of bedrock values looks like.

We'll see.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, President Bush was recently here in Philly, to give one of several speeches explaining his reasons for invading Iraq. These are important talks for the President to have with the American public, since during the Mars Rx transit, much murmuring and outright disagreement has taken place, both among the "loyal opposition party" the Democrats, but even among some of the President's own party as well. With Mars now moving in direct motion and in square to his Asc, Bush laid out to the Philadelphia audience his rationale for invading Iraq, and even took some "off the cuff" questions from the audience, a rare move for him - and he actually looked calm, in control and glib with his answers, even at one point joking with Senator Arlen Spector.
After much cogitation over this whole affair, I think I've finally got it as to why there is so much debate; I have plans to further flesh these thoughts out in a seperate piece, but for now, I'll just layout the broad over-arching themes and disagreements.

It's much like the old saying about how two people can look at the same thing and come away with different impressions/conclusions? The Iraq War/War On Terror is much in the same vein:
If you're on the Left, you see Sep 11 as something along the lines of a criminal act - a large, extraordinary, heinous criminal act, but a criminal act nonetheless. Therefore, your position is that it is necessary to apprehend those responsible - Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network - and you might even go along with removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. Stop.

Now, if you're on the Right, you see Sep 11 not as a criminal act, but an act of war, the first shot in what Rumsfeld called a "long tough slog" that is the War On Terror. With so much unpreceedented carnage and death occuring on American soil, you finally realize that it's not enough to ignore the state of affairs that have cropped up in the Middle East and larger Islamic World, even if the USA might have played a hand or two in those developments over the years. You see the need to clean house, to depose dictators and literally give the Middle East a makeover. Afghanistan was just the first stop on the Democracy Express.

Clearly, Bush and the GOP are advocates of the latter approach, one that is at the very least controversial, but one which, at this early juncture, seems to be working - tomorrow the Iraqi people will vote to ratify their Constitution, the third time overall in a year that they have had free elections in more than 3 decades. Afghanistan too has held free elections with the Taliban having been removed shortly after Sep 11; and indeed, there HAS been a ripple effect in the Middle East. The Saudi hierarchy has had to at least give the appearance of crawling to reform; Eygpt has held free elections; Lebanon has finally kicked Syria out of its country; and Syria itself is under tremendous pressure from both the USA and the international community in the form of the United Nations, to both stay out of Lebanon's internal affairs, as well as to allow unfettered investigations into the assassination of one of Lebanon's most famous and revered statesmen, Rafiq Hariri.

At the time Mars went Retrograde at 23 Taurus, it had squared Uranus in the Iraq War Resolution horoscope (Oct 16 2002 11.32AM EDT Washington DC, Placidus 13 Sag 00, CNN), Uranus ruling the the 3rd - a national "re-think" of the War?-and during the course of Mars' backward transit, it would conjunct the Asc of President Bush's 2nd Inauguration chart as well (Jan 20 2005 12PM EST Washington DC, Placidus 14 Tau 02, Public Record).

In fact, both Mars and Saturn would square each other during Mars' Rx transit, bringing up much international discussion regarding the USA's position on the use of torture as a tactic of extracting vital information from terrorist suspects taken prisoner. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit to Europe was in fact peppered with these kind of questions; note that she has these planets (Mars and Saturn) in square in her natus (Nov 14 1954 11.30AM CST Birmingham AL, Placidus 3 Aqr 8, Rodden). I'll have more to say about this issue in due course, but suffice it to say that as Mars and Saturn move toward squaring each other again very soon, this is an issue that will remain on the front burner for a bit longer in the news cycle.

A final note - the next Mars-Saturn Conjunction will take place in June of 2006, at about 7 Leo (Tropical) EXACTLY CONJUNCT President Bush's Asc! With the Fixed Grand Cross in the sky exacerbated by the Mars Rx transit and Saturn squares, this upcoming conjunction could prove to be very, very important, especially if things take a drastic turn for the worse in Iraq and elsewhere.

Hmm....

Salaam,
Mu