President Bush and Iran’s president Amahdinejad share an important astrological component: Mars in the chart of one man is square to Mars in the chart of the other. Mars is the god of war – in the birthchart it shows our drive, our aggressive instinct. It shows how we go about getting what we want, and how we defend what we already have. George Bush has Mars in Virgo which is normally a rather restrained placement for Mars but tends to be shortsighted. Mars in his chart makes no aspect to any other planets, and he tends to act as a lone wolf, a renegade soldier who listens to advice from no one. His Leo ascendant and triple conjunction of Mercury/Pluto/Venus in Leo adds fire and combustion to his personality and creating a sense of entitlement (Leo). For more information on Bush’s birthchart view my initial analysis and update.

Ahmadinejad’s Mars is in Pisces, which makes no tight aspects to other planets but it does widely oppose Jupiter (theology, expansion) in his chart. Mars in Pisces is someone who is driven (Mars) to lose oneself in an experience of the divine (Pisces). The opposition of Mars in Pisces with Jupiter often results in an individual who has an aggrandized (Jupiter) view of oneself and an expanded sense of self-importance and self-righteousness. In Bush’s chart, Jupiter squares his Sun which has a similar effect. Both men are proud to the point of arrogance and belligerent in their actions to each other.

The interactions between their charts also tell an interesting tale: the Mars opposition between their charts creates a stressful tension between them. Each views the other as arrogant and aggressive and therefore each refuses to back down. Bush’s Uranus is square to Ahmadinejad’s Mars, which provides a constant irritation to Ahmadinjad and renews the conflict. Bush’s Pluto is in square to Ahmadinejad’s Sun, creating a sense of potential annhilation and danger. Uranus as it transits the sky has been activating Mars in the charts of both men, providing a constant irritation for the tension that already exists between them. Ahmadinejad is already in the middle of the “Chiron Return”, where transiting Chiron returns to its place in his birthchart which is also setting off the square of Chiron to the Sun in his birthchart, causing him to be extra reactive and emotional over this next year. For more about Ahmadinejad’s chart view the earlier article here. You may also be interested in Art Gianfermo’s analysis here.

President Bush has become a symbol that is greater than life across the globe through his political actions, but nowhere is this stronger than in his effect on Iran’s president. This is having a dramatic effect in the news this week as Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalate.