Benazir Bhutto’s Death

Written on January 16, 2008 by Dharmaruci

Having natal Moon in Sagittarius, I bounced into this blog a few days ago without introducing myself and without knowing very much about visual astrology. My main qualification is that I recently bought Starlight! Anyway, I’ve been informally studying astrology for the last 19 years, doing readings for the last 5 years, and I have been writing an astrology blog at www.astrotabletalk.blogspot.com for the last 18 months. But I have recurrent doubts about ‘normal’ astrology because the stars aren’t included, and the zodiac is a fiction that somehow works. Hence my recent interest in visual astrology, which has a sort of primal appeal for me. And what better way to learn it than have the opportunity to talk about it? By the way, if anyone can explain to me in very basic terms how to upload an image, that would be great. I tried and failed. Was it because it was bitmap?

So, to business. In my last post I wrote about Hillary Clinton and the Moon-Mars eclipse of 24^th December. But the death of Benazir Bhutto was much more striking, occurring 3 days after the eclipse. The blogosphere had had plenty of speculation as to what this eclipse might mean, including the known possibility that an asteroid might hit Mars in late January!

Benazir Bhutto was born on either the 21^st or 23rd June 1953, with Sun at 29 Gemini or 1 Cancer, and Mars 5 degrees further on in Cancer. Whichever way, her Sun-Mars midpoint is 2 to 3 Cancer, and the Moon-Mars eclipse was at 3 Cancer, bang on the mid-point. It was one of those times when astrology almost shocks you, this eclipse really was a judgement from the gods that was carried out swiftly and literally and shockingly.

I think her death was eminently predictable, given her situation, the recent attempt on her life, and the fact that, for example, transiting Pluto was opposing her Sun and moving to oppose her Mars. It was one of those times when you are reminded that astrology really does work. The Oxford and Harvard educated Bhutto either did not consult an astrologer or did not care, for politics was her lifeblood. The Moon-Mars eclipse merely provided the timing for the event. It has the quality of a Greek Tragedy, in which Bhutto the tragic heroine in her hubris tried to defy the gods, she tried to defy natural law, she went back to Pakistan to oppose the whole political direction that the country is now taking.

Lest we idealise her, it’s worth remembering that she and her husband were accused of siphoning off 1½ BILLION dollars from the country while she was premier. A number of countries provided documentary evidence of this, and in Switzerland she was convicted of money laundering. This side of her is described by her Venus in Taurus square to Pluto. If we take the 23^rd June Chart, we find that in the years of her Prime she had Venus in Paran to Alphard, the heart of the serpent. The serpent speaks of passion, often unconscious, which allied to Venus can come out as greed. If you like, the serpent also speaks of betrayal, and her theft of money was also a betrayal of her country at the time she was supposed to be its protector. (She is also alleged to have had her brother murdered for speaking out against her, a betrayal that goes both ways.)

In her posting of 28^th Dec, Cornelia points out that on the day of the assassination, the Moon was in Paran with Algol and Alphard. We do not need to look for a psychological interpretation here: Algol has the literal interpretation of a foul death, and it is feminine in nature, as is the Moon.

According to reports, she was shot sometime between 17:09 and 17:12 on 27^th December in Rawalpindi. During that period Facies was conjunct the Descendant (and opposite Mars which had just risen!), so we can see that as the defining sky event of the assassination. This is perfect: the Descendant is where we encounter or attract others; Facies is not only potentially very violent, but also ruthless, a quality needed in an assassin; he also would only have had one chance, so he needed deadly accuracy, another attribute of this star in the face of the Archer; finally, the Sun was setting, so Facies, like our assassin, was not visible, outshone by Bhutto’s presence.

There are a few other sky connections worth mentioning. Algol has been mentioned. Her male counterpart, Capulus, was conjunct the IC at the moment of the Moon-Mars Eclipse, set for Karachi, Bhutto’s birthplace and where she had been living since her return to Pakistan. In the stars of her latter years (which I suppose she must have been living through, given her death), Bhutto has Jupiter in Paran to Capulus, which gave her the strength, or if you like wilfulness, to return to Pakistan at the time she did.

The exact moment of the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction of 12^th Dec was in Sagittarius, widely opposite Mars, and conjunct the IC in both Karachi, the old Capital, and
Islamabad, the modern Capital. This conjunction is strongly suggestive of the violent (Mars) religious fundamentalism (Jupiter Pluto in Sag) arising from within the community and its traditions (IC). In his posting of 30^th Nov, Michael points out that this conjunction took place within the heel of Ophiuchus the healer, but within range of the archer’s bow. So the conjunction was a portent of the violence still to come. But we also have to take Ophiuchus seriously: this upheaval will eventually heal the country, not in a way that we as westerners might like, but an Islamist Pakistan would probably be brutal enough to bring a kind of peace to the country.

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