The September 11th tragedy occurred under an opposition of Saturn to Pluto. (see chart) That is, Saturn was in the opposite point of the sky relative to Pluto's position as the events unfolded. Under an alignment such as this, the expressions and energies associated with the planets activate each other. As Richard Tarnas writes, "As with every major aspect or alignment between two planets, the corresponding archetypes mutually activate each other and combine, each in its own archetypally specific way, to create a range of quite distinctive and powerful qualities, tendencies, and events."(1)
Saturn and Pluto, each in their own way, have garnered the reputation as being the "heavy weights" of astrological symbolism; both planets carry a profundity and depth in their archetypal expression. When these planets form alignments to each other, each symbol impresses its expression on the other. Hence, the greatness and profundity of each symbol in isolation is intensified as they form significant alignments to each other. This greatness and intensity translates into events—epic in scope and momentous in their significance—that shape, contour, and alter world history. Recent Saturn-Pluto alignments can attest to this phenomenon: September 11th, the height of the atrocities in Rwanda and the Balkans, Pol Pot's "Killing Fields," and the initiation of the Cultural Revolution in China.
Interestingly, when remarking on the significance of the September 11th attacks, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice stated, "I really think this period is analogous to 1945 to 1947 in that the events…started shifting the tectonic plates in international politics."(2) What is quite noteworthy is that Rice was inadvertantly referring to a time that correlated with a Saturn-Pluto conjunction. Moreover, Rice's use of metaphor—referencing a shift in tectonic plates—captures quite accurately the character and nature of the interface between Saturn and Pluto. Like reverberations of massive plates of earth, the Saturn-Pluto interface indicates times of noteworthy and wide-ranging shifts in geopolitical structuring. We may think of Saturn as expressing the geopolitical framework at any given point in time. Pluto, then, represents large, dynamic shifts that aim to transform the framework or structure as symbolized by Saturn. Like an earthquake, Pluto's energy represents slow and unforeseen change that manifests suddenly and with tremendous energy.
What is quite remarkable about the recent Saturn opposition to Pluto is that the opposition aligned with the Ascendant/Descendant axis in the United States natal chart. Without discussing the technicalities of the Ascendant/Descendant axis, this set of points represent, for the lack of a better expression, zones of prominent significance and power in the astrological chart. In fact, the importance of these lines in the birth chart has stood up to scientific scrutiny. (3) With the recent Saturn-Pluto opposition aligning with the United States' Ascendant/Descendant axis, the epic, grave, and altering quality of the Saturn-Pluto opposition was amplified by these zones of power. The cataclysmic quality of the Saturn-Pluto interface was directly implicated in the United States' evolution through the alignment landing in the zones of the Ascendant-Descendant axis. Thus, the tectonic shifting that Condoleezza Rice refers to had a direct impact on the course of the United States' destiny as a nation.
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