I had a great weekend, and thanks to Dharmaruci and Melody for filling in while I was gone. I had an interesting experience in an attempt to get an astrology reading from a local astrologer who insisted to me that I was engaged in power struggles of the worst kind (Pluto is transiting my seventh house of partnerships) and that my relationships were in the toilet (Saturn is square Venus in my chart). It turned out that he was born during the same month of the same year as I was, and he insisted on looking at my chart as a mirror of his. Stuck in his own issues, he refused to see the possibilities of strength and growth inherent in these transits that could lift both of us out of a trap of power dramas and relationship hell. I gently suggested that perhaps it was he who should have the reading and gave him his $25.

Mars was square to Pluto yesterday, and I like how Melody puts it: The warrior energy of Mars clears the way at the cutting edge of our soul’s journey, and when in aspect to Pluto is a definite pitchfork in the butt push. So while these times can be challenging in general, they can also be very transmutative.

And thanks to Dharmaruci for connecting the dots of the Bush presidency to Saturn/Neptune: We can therefore reasonably expect some big shift between now and [June when the Saturn/Neptune cycle concludes], which can only be politically disastrous for Bush, but which makes the Iraq policy much more realistic. The obvious starting point is the surge and its failure. Without his surge, Bush does not have a policy.

Still, we are seeing power struggles erupt into violence in Gaza and Pakistan under the square of Mars and Pluto, and less violently in the governmental bodies in the US. From the news:

• As protests in Pakistan over the removal of a Judge by President Mushharraf become more violent, Pakistani soldiers are ordered to kill rioters on sight.
• Violence erupted on election day in the Phillippines.
• An increase of factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah members in the Gaza Strip resulted in the resignation of the Palestinian interior minister.
• Hundreds of thousands of Turks showed up to protest the possibility of an Islamic government in their country.

And in weather, fires erupted (Mars/Pluto) in Florida, California, Georgia, Minnesota and Ontario, Arizona, Delhi, Boston, Baltimore, Malawi.

As I’ve said before, Mars in Pisces can operate in mysterious ways and in a couple of days when Mars enters its own sign of Aries its energy will be much more available and less prone to act out in ways that are less productive.