This essay will focus on the themes of the Saturn-Pluto cycle and its relevance to the current terrorist crisis. The current terrorist crisis has occured within a Saturn-Pluto opposition, a roughly two-year phase in which Saturn will be approximately 180 degrees away from Pluto in configuration. Roughly every seven to eight years*, Saturn and Pluto form what is called a "hard" aspect to each other, meaning, Saturn and Pluto form an angular relationship known to create dynamic tension, generate dilemmas to be resolved, and propagate difficult, stressful and contentious situations-thus "hard." The type of trials and conflict created by a hard aspect is dependent upon the planetary archetypes involved, and, in this case, Saturn and Pluto.

Although Saturn and Pluto have numerous meanings and manifestations in isolation, for the purposes of this essay, it will be only necessary to observe the themes that are evident when the two planets form hard aspects. For the sake of brevity, this essay will not provide an in-depth historical account or analysis of each Saturn-Pluto alignment in the previous century but will attempt to present enough information to bring forth the central themes and patterns of the alignment well into view. Moreover, this essay focuses on the more problematic expressions of this energy; this archetypal pattern is capable of producing the most profoundly creative and beneficial capacities to match the innate problematic possibilities discussed below.

There is great overlap between the thirteen themes and the division between the themes is often arbitrary, however, the distinction can help navigate the analysis of the historical periods that are outlined below:

• 1. A tendency to go deeply unconscious, to be swayed by suggestion, hypnosis. Powers of suggestibility, of persuasion, hegemony, exploitation of mass consciousness. The manipulation via primal and archaic symbology of what is deeply and darkly embedded in the collective unconscious-the strategic manipulation of the collective shadow and collective fears.
• 2. The "return of the repressed." The dark, taboo, or sadistic side of the collective unconscious-usually the "unmentionables" that exist but lay dorment and unprocessed-erupt quite violently and rapidly into whole nations or groups.
• 3. The attraction, application, and misuse of power on a grand scale. A passionate thirst for absolute, draconian power.
• 4. The great historical dramas are initiated, often depicted in terms of oppositional forces that are involved in tremendous struggle for control and dominance.
• 5. Intense polarization between groups and nations. The inability to transcend one's limited viewpoint and see things holistically, systemically, or ambiguously.
• 6. Justification for war as a struggle to maintain life and as an instrument of purgation or purification. Wars or conflicts begin at these times with either explicit or implicit ethnic, religious, or racial undertones.