Just after the opposition between Saturn and Uranus culminated last week, tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tehran on Friday in a rare show of opposition against the pro-Palestinian rhetoric of Iranian president Ahmadinejad whose anti-Israeli speeches on Jerusalem Day gave rise to chants like this one:  “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I’ll sacrifice my life for Iran.”

Tension has been fomenting in Iran since the Iranian elections in June when Ahmadinejad won in a widely disputed landslide over challenger Hussein Moussavi, and we can see the events on the ground reflected in the astrological signatures.  The progressed Sun (national identity) in the chart of Iran last year conjoined Chiron (sensitivity and wounding/healing) at the very top of the chart, the point that we call the Midheaven, the point that represents the national government and its place in the world community.  Iranian dissidents are more and more sensitive now to their place in the global environment, and more and more open in their disdain for the oddly apocalyptic ideas of their President.  

We are in the third phase of the opposition between Saturn and Uranus, and this conflict between the desire to return to the safety of the past (Saturn) and the desire for that which is new and revolutionary (Uranus) is clearly seen in the leadership of Ahmadinejad.  He is both a  revolutionary (Uranus) and a reactionary (Saturn), wanting to return to repressive conservative values (Saturn) while blowing Israel off the map (Uranus).  This phase of the opposition of Saturn to Uranus is aspecting exactly Mars in the chart of Iran.  Mars is the warrior – the aggressive instinct that seeks self-preservation and the gratification of desire.  There is a tremendous amount of anger in that country at the moment that will need to find some kind of release.