Terrorist Attack on America
© 2001 Curtis Manwaring
It has been a while since I looked at anything other than natal charts, but this most dramatic inception made me wonder what is on the mind of the cosmic soul. The first hint of something gone wrong occurred between 8:45 - 8:48 am in Manhattan, Sept 11th, 2001. The chart shown is for this time. One way of contemplating an inception chart such as this is to imagine that it is the chart of a person, then by analogy, see what the cosmic soul reasons about this person.
Since this event is one of fear, violence and terror, I knew before hand that Mars must be in an important position. It had just made an ingress into Capricorn and although modern astrologers would say that this is a 3rd house Mars, the ancients all agreed that topically Mars is in the 4th sign from the ascendant and is therefore in the subterraneous pivot (4th house). Paulus had this to say about Ares (Mars) in the 4th:
"When the star of Ares happens to be upon this place in the day, it produces those who are sickly and have the falling sickness". [1]
This is a rather vivid visual account showing that such individuals would have trouble keeping steady on their feet (presumably because of epilepsy). What Mars is doing here is introducing instability in the foundation because of it's location in the 4th house; which has much to do with real estate and buildings. It is also interesting to note that Mars happens to be the lord of the lot of nemesis which falls at 23 Scorpio. (To calculate the lot of nemesis, take the arc in degrees from Saturn to the lot of fortune (by day) and begin with these degrees from the ascendant. Where the arc ends, there is the lot of nemesis.) The definition of nemesis according to Paulus:
"Nemesis becomes a contributing cause of subterreanean fates and of everything which is ice-cold, of demonstration, impotence, exile, destruction, grief and quality of death". [2]
Nemesis is also defined as that which brings the native to his downfall ... in this case, that which brings the World Trade Center down. (I also seem to recall a chart which was supposedly the chart of Sampson's death where he brings down a temple where he was imprisoned. Supposedly Mars was in the 4th house at the time, but I wish I could remember the source.)
The requests that Mars makes also have greater merit before the courtroom of the cosmic soul because of it's exaltation in Capricorn. The only other planet that is given great merit is Jupiter (Zeus) by it's exaltation in Cancer. Antiochus of Athens explains the relationship of these two planets in exaltation like so:
"...why is it that at that place where Zeus is exalted, there Ares is depressed; and where Ares is exalted, there Zeus is depressed? We say that it is because Zeus is the overseer of the life-breath and abundance, while Ares is the overseer of death. Then, at the place where the life-breath increases, there the bringer of death is depressed; and where death increases, there life is depressed". [3]
In effect what we will have here for the next 2 months (while Mars transits through Capricorn) is a war between Jupiter and Mars over whose requests will be more meritorious before the court of the cosmic soul. In other words, a war between life and breath and the bringer of death, which has been popularized in the media as a struggle between freedom and tyranny. The planet that conforms more exactly to the legal standard (by comparing the trigon and bound lord) will have the advantage.
Temporarily Jupiter is at a disadvantage because it is in the bounds and trigon of Venus while Venus is in aversion to Jupiter (by being in the next sign outside of ptolemaic aspect). This means that Jupiter has no way to make its requests conform to the expectations of the cosmic soul. While Mars is in the bounds of Mercury and the trigon of Venus. Mars hurls rays at Mercury and Mercury in turn witnesses to Venus and is received by Venus making the requests of Mars more easily heard by the cosmic soul. This will change around September 23 when at the same time Jupiter enters the bounds of Mercury and Mars enters Jupiter's bounds, at which point Mars (or the requests of Mars) will be held accountable.
I could speculate about the Mars/Saturn lot being in the 8th house of death and about the lot of fortune being in the 10th with the lord (the Moon) in aversion but I feel I have already strained the limits of propriety in reading this chart according to the original hellensitic philosophical disciplines.
On a political note, I must say this comes just as the Bush administration was getting hammered by the economy. It may polarize the American public's attention away from holding Bush responsible and generate sympathy in the near term. Of course, if he can't handle it well, it will be no help. It also gives the government carte blanche to instute martial law if they so choose; as George Carlin says "trading away our freedoms for the illusion of security". BTW, I recently saw George Carlin in Vegas. He's got a problem because his comedy routine won't work now, so don't be surprised if he ends up canceling the rest of his tour for a while.
Notes:
1. Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters, Bk I, pg 52. Translated by Robert Schmidt 1993 (Revised second edition).
2. Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters, Bk I, pg 48. Translated by Robert Schmidt 1993 (Revised second edition).
3. Antiochus of Athens, The Thesaurus, Bk I, pg 8. Translated by Robert Schmidt 1993.
