Benazir Bhutto: the Pluto Mars Effect December 28, 2007
Posted by Lara in Benazir Bhutto astrology, Pluto Mars opposition.trackback
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated yesterday (December 27 2007) at 1:16 pm GMT in Rawalpindi. This tragedy has the ring of historical inevitability. I had had a sinking feeling in October when I saw the news footage of her return to Pakistan. Intuitively, I could not see how she was going to survive. Looking at her chart today, it’s all too clear that she was walking back into the danger zone at a deeply dangerous time in her own life. The astrological relationships between her chart, the moment of death, and the chart of Pakistan itself is are quite staggering.
Bhutto’s birth chart (June 21 1953, time unknown) shows the Sun at 29 Gemini and Mars at 4 Cancer. At the time of her death Mars was moving back through the early degrees of Cancer towards the opposition with Pluto that will be exact on January 2 2008.
Mars opposes Pluto every two years: this winter, because of the Mars retrograde, we get the opposition on three occasions. It was exact for the first time (for this series of three) on September 21, just as Bhutto was preparing to go back to Pakistan after eight years in exile. The second pass coincides with the assassination, and the third will be on March 7. When we add Jupiter into the mix, currently opposing Mars and still within orbs of the conjunction with Pluto, we get a major political event.
The Mars Pluto opposition is one of the most violent aspects in astrology, and fell on Bhutto’s natal Sun Mars conjunction. At the time of her death Pluto was very close (within 23 minutes) to the exact opposition to her Sun, in an applying (ie strong) aspect. Mars was also moving back to her Sun, and was just over a degree away. So she was caught in a Mars Pluto sandwich. At the same time, transiting Neptune was trining her natal Saturn Neptune conjunction, indicating that the outlet for all this tension could be death, and certainly, sacrifice of some kind. At the moment of death, the transiting Moon was exactly conjunct her natal Pluto, which sits atop the Sun in the chart of Pakistan (which signified, among other indicators, her deep connection with the soul of the country).
The chart of Pakistan (August 15 1947, midnight) has Mars at 0 degrees Cancer, conjunct Uranus at 25 Gemini. So the inherent violence and instability of the country, signified by the Mars Uranus conjunction in the founding chart, is also right now under pressure from the Mars Pluto opposition, with transiting Mars conjunct natal Mars, and Pluto opposing it. The symbolism of current transits to the Pakistan chart is intense, showing a woman deeply connected to the soul of the country being pressured by Uranus (sudden events), moving to an exact inconjunction with Venus, which is anyway natally challenged by being conjunct Saturn, Pluto, and the Sun (showing the complexity of the relationship with the feminine in the story of Pakistan).
What comes next? More violence in the region, for sure. Martial law, once again, is very likely, and the chance of democratic elections once more recedes. But this death has a ring of sacrifice to it. Did she really think she would survive the return to a country even more deranged than in the past? The already violent nature of Pakistan plus the religious fundamentalism of the past decade has created a hotspot that threatens the stability of the planet.
To be optimistic, perhaps Benazir’s death will wake the region up to its responsibility to change deep patterns of conflict. But this will take time, and meanwhile, the chart of Pakistan has to face another Mars Pluto opposition on its natal Mars when the aspect repeats again on March 7 2008, while at the same time Neptune opposes its natal Sun (21 Leo). It doesn’t look good.
i wonder with forboding that this assasination is a fortaster of plutos ingress into capricorn on 26th of january,when it will still be in opposition to mars retrograde and its business unfinished,the threatened destabilisation of a region important to both sides in the terrorism/state conflict cannot be good,the imminent elections due on the 8th of january will surely be a disaster,and if musharaf cancels them then there will be many very angry people,It looks to me that plutos undermining of states(capricorn) is getting off to an early start.
I just happened to catch a bit of an interview with Gail Sheehy (author) who interviewed Benazir Bhutto and one of the questions asked of Benazir was something to the effect ‘do you feel that you might meet with death?’ and her answer amounted to a knowingness that this is a strong possibility of her fate and destiny that she is prepared to meet with. The other thing that seemed to be repeated in this interview, in Gail’s account of her interview with Benazir, was the continual mention of Benazir’s ‘fearless’ approach in her quest - even down to the mention of the fact that she only maintained one unarmed woman as a security measure when out in public. I, too, had a sinking feeling about her demise back in October and I am saddend by her death.
I noticed you are using the time of her death as 6:16 pm in Rawalpindi. This morning I heard an interview with the doctor who pronounced her dead and he said she was lifeless at 5:38 pm. I think she died before that and am thinking it was closer to 5:00 pm. Just a thought.
Also, I have seen 7:49 pm Karachi as her birth time and also 6:30 pm Karachi. It seems to me that she has a Capricorn rising. Any thoughts?
According to http://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=132
Her Correct Date Of Birth Is 21 JUNE 1953 AT 20:15
Hi Maria,
I am using the time of death given by the BBC. I haven’t used any angles of the chart in my interpretation though, as the time is, as you suggest, still unclear. Ditto with her birth time. Several times are floating around on the net but I have yet to see one confirmed.
Anybody know anything definite? If you do, please cite your source.
Charles,
Thanks for that birth time. I checked up on the web page you got it from, and it doesn’t give a source for the time. I need more verification before using this birth time definitively.
Hello
The guys from StarIQ.com give 7:59 pm as her time of birth [source not specified]. For the death, there is a specific transit to a specific house cups [transiting Pluto semisquare the natal 8th house cusp] which supports this birth time, so it might be exact.
Hi Radu,
Michael Wolfstar, the writer on StarIQ who cites the 7:59 pm birh time, says he does not have a source for the time. Marjorie Orr is also using this time but doesn’t giev a source either. The chart does work but it would be good to know where the data is coming from. Cap rising fits, (as Maria says above). As does Mars conjunct the DES (7th is house of open enemies).
Journal of astrology gives the dateof birth as 23rd June 1953
There’s a general consensus in the news media that her birth date is 21 June, so the Journal of Astrology appears to be in error.
I wonder about this Journal of Astrology article: http://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=87 because there was so much care taken correlating events in her life. Maybe it is something as simple as a typographical error.
Charles, how did you get 20:15 pm. Did you find some birth info right there in Karachi? I think that still gives her a Capricorn rising.
What was Benazir thinking standing up in that car? Do you think that was something to do with her Moon conjunct Neptune or maybe the transiting moon on her pluto? In any event, her behavior seemed quite reckless.