Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has challenged President Bush to a live TV debate. Bush has denied any attempt that Iran has made to communicate with the US, so this is not likely to occur; however, it does make a textbook example of the dynamic between Mars and Pluto.

Mars represents the will of the individual ego to assert itself – it operates as our individual drive and aggressive instincts. Pluto acts from the deeper instincts beyond the ego, and consequently the anger and rage of Pluto is much deeper and comes from impulses that have long been buried without expression. When Mars squares Pluto in the current planetary cycle, the personal will of Mars becomes more fearless as it comes into conflict with the instinctual aggressive instinct of Pluto.

Both Ahmadinejad and Bush have Mars unaspected in their charts (see this earlier article
for more information about Ahmadinejad’s chart) showing their rebellious nature which makes it difficult to temper their aggressive instincts. The current Mars/Pluto square is forming a T-square to the Venus/Jupiter conjunction in Ahmadinejad’s chart and increasing his confidence and arrogance in stretching the boundaries of his relationships – in this case, with other world leaders.

In the past few days he has rejected the UN ultimatum and vowed to continue Iran’s path towards nuclear technology, inaugurating a new nuclear reactor plant in defiance of world opinion. He declared Saturday that the world must accept Iran as a powerful country in its own right.

Over the next year as Saturn in Leo opposes Neptune in Aquarius, issues of “who is in charge” (Leo) will come to the forefront. I’ll write more on this later, but Iran is certainly a prime example of what we have to look forward to.