The square between Mars and Pluto won’t be exact until tomorrow night, but the past few days have seen increased violence around the world. From the news today:

• Bombs were set off in two Turkish resort towns.
• Baluch separatists rioted for a third day in Pakistan.
• Killings surge in Iraq with over 100 dead just today as Shiite militia battled Iraqi security forces.
• A suicide bombing yesterday in Afghanistan killed 17 people and injured many more in the worst day of violence since 2001.

When Mars (personal will and aggression) and Pluto (death, rebirth and transformation) square off it’s never pretty and it doesn’t matter what the astronomers think. With Saturn and Neptune in conflict as well the ride is going to be bumpy for the next few weeks. Fortunately Jupiter is just about exactly trine to Uranus which will bring opportunities (Jupiter) for new ways of doing things and original thinking (Uranus). This could enable the conflicts that are going on to end up with some meaningful change if the parties involved can resist getting stuck in the old patterns of behavior. Neptune’s job is to dissolve those patterns that Saturn builds, which in today’s world could be a good thing after all.