Neptune Enters Pisces; Israel and Iran

Neptune has a shadow side just as much as Pluto does, and on a collective level it comes out in the form of mass suffering and victimhood. Neptune entered the sign it rules, Pisces, 2 days ago, and the next day there were reports of a massacre of 200 people by the security forces in Syria.

Just as on the day Uranus entered Aries last year a nuclear power station exploded in Japan, so too has Neptune entering Pisces revealed its presence from day one.

Neptune is currently conjunct Chiron, and the last time this occurred was in the sign of Libra in 1945: then it was the signature of both the founding of the UN and Hiroshima.

Conflict between nations is a Chiron issue because it is in a sense incurable: it has always been there and always will, and Neptune in Libra conjoining shows an attempt to heal (Chiron) through diplomacy (Libra) and the dissolution of barriers (Neptune). 66 years later, the day after Neptune entered Pisces to make an in-sign conjunction with Chiron, the UN proved unable to pass a resolution condemning Syria for its brutal treatment of protesters. Astrology sets a lot of store by beginnings, and this has not been an auspicious start to Neptune’s final entry into Pisces (the first was April 2011).

More broadly, though, I think Neptune in Pisces has to with re-dreaming our collective mythologies.
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Chiron-Neptune also describes the use of nuclear weapons. It was in the first House trine to Mars when the first bomb exploded. Chiron here is the damaging technology that is ‘incurable’ in that it cannot be reversed; and Neptune again is the mass suffering.

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We can expect some sort of cycle around nuclear weapons to be completed during the present conjunction of Chiron to Neptune, the first since 1945. The most notable feature of nuclear weapons is that they have not been used since 1945. This is truly remarkable. It is an impressive collective achievement, and maybe the present conjunction is a time to reflect on that.

But the nuclear clouds are gathering in the Middle East. Iran is close to having enough weapons grade Uranium and technological understanding to make a bomb, and Israel is said to be close to attacking Iran in order to disable its nuclear effort.

That will not be easy. The Israelis will have to fly some 1500 miles each way, crossing Iraqi airspace in the process. And then the Iranians have their facilities guarded by fighter jets, and buried under 100 feet of concrete. You need bunker busters to get through this, and I remember noting a few years ago that the US had agreed to sell some of these to Israel. But delivery remains the difficulty.

The simplest solution (by yours truly the military expert) would seem to be a nuclear bunker-buster missile, guided by satellite. I have read that this is the only real alternative to conventional bunker busters, which would seem to be difficult to deliver in the circumstances.

Israel’s existence will be under threat if Iran develops nuclear weapons, and I have no doubt that if Israel considers a nuclear payload is needed to take out Iran’s facilities, they will do so. I’m not siding with Israel here. I don’t think the country should have come into existence in the first place, but now it is here, it must be allowed to exist. It is possible that this conjunction of Neptune and Chiron will result in the breaking of the taboo that has built up against the use of nuclear weapons.

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Like many countries, Iran is undergoing some major transits over the next few years. But there is a particularly military flavour in Iran’s case, due to its Sun being in Aries opposite Pluto. Tr Pluto and Uranus will be hard aspecting Iran’s Sun, so we can expect radical change and renewal in its leadership, and for Aries issues of war and winning/losing to characterise that change. Iran’s natal Mars is at 25 Pisces, to which tr Mars recently stationed in opposition. Mars will head back to early Virgo in April, and then move forward to exactly oppose Iran's natal Mars in June.

So there are multiple factors for Iran between now and June: Uranus and Pluto both coming to within 2 to 3 degrees of hard aspecting the natal Sun, and exactly squaring each other in June. And Mars, dispositor of the Sun, performing its retrograde dance opposite natal Mars. In early April, as Mars stations, it will be conjunct Israel’s natal Mars at 28 Leo.

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It is Iran’s Solar Return chart for this year, ending 31 March, that is most interesting, for it has Ascendant at 23.56 Taurus; Israel’s natal Sun is at 23.40 Taurus. This suggests something very strong going on between those countries in the next 2 months. And Iran’s SR Mars is at 29 Pisces, the most vulnerable and open part of the zodiac. And conjunct Uranus. This well describes a disabling attack. There is nothing, however, that points particularly towards that attack being nuclear.