Extracting sense out of the Gaza inferno and plotting an astro-timeline forward for Israel and its Middle Eastern neighbours is a depressing if necessary task as a New Year dawns. Netanyahu says there will be no end to the carnage for months ahead with no indication he has a post-war plan, or at least not one he will publicly own. Though his right wing Finance and Defence Minister Bezalel Smotrich favours mass forced immigration of Palestinians to other Arab countries who are unlikely to cooperate. To date 23,000 Gazans have been killed and 85% forced out of their homes and swathes have been reduced to wasteland with UN agencies warning of disease, malnutrition and famine.
The US is continuing to supply Israel with weapons and Israel has rejected international pressure for a temporary truce to allow significant humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza. The longer the conflict continues, the greater the likelihood of it spreading out through the Middle East.
Netanyahu has vowed to take control of the Egypt-Gaza border to eradicate the military threat from Hamas. It is the only crossing into and out of Gaza not currently under Israeli management. It would amount to a de facto re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, something the US and Egypt will oppose.
The Israel chart has nothing of cheer through this year. The Tr Uranus conjunct the 8th house Taurus Sun which just preceded the deadly and brutal Hamas October attack is back in May and again late December into March 2025 which will bring considerable disruption. There will be explosive disasters even earlier from mid March onwards as tr Uranus collides with two Mars midpoints and they repeat on and off till late year. From mid April onwards, on and off till late 2025 the Israel Sun/Neptune point catches the tr Pluto opposition, which Ebertin describes as “a tragic deception or illusion, emotional and physical suffering” and usually accompanies a sense of devastation and confusion. Plus a sprinkling of undermining Neptune transits to the Israel Jupiter and Uranus and several midpoints. High risk and intransigence will continue from mid 2025 with tr Uranus square the Israel Mars into 2026. By which time tr Pluto is in a meltdown opposition to the Israel 10th house Moon in 2026/27. By 2027 the Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct the Israel 12th house Neptune for indecision and confusion about what comes next.
Hamas may well be defeated by 2026/27 but they will have achieved at least one aim in provoking Israel into an over-the-top retaliation that loses them all international respect. The other aim presumably would be to widen the conflict out to include other Middle Eastern countries. And there are worrisome reverberations across quite a few related charts.
26 degrees Taurus with Uranus Mars and Algol in July 2024 sparks off Egypt’s General Al Sisi’s 26 degree Scorpio Sun square his 26 degree Pluto in Leo – though his chart is also on high alert now to mid March as well. He is actively engaged with Saudi Arabia and Qatar in trying to forge a peace plan. Netanyahu also has Mars at 26 Leo. Hezbollah’s Sun square Saturn are both 27 degree fixed so catching the aspects in August 2024.
Netanyahu’s relationship charts with Al Sisi, Saudi’s MbS and Qatar’s Sheik Tamin are all aggravated and unsettled from March/April onwards.
Israel’s relationship chart with the Iran 1906 country chart also points to a high alert in July/August 2024. Relations with the UK will be at a standoff with similar though different tussles with the EU. Only the US is ambling along with its head in the clouds as tr Pluto is trine the composite Jupiter Neptune.
The October 2023 Solar Eclipse in a Saros series of immense power and anger was certainly on point. The two solar eclipses in 2024 are less hair-raising, though the October one hints at sorrow over a completion. Though whether that relates to this impossible deadlock is not clear.
What is clear from the astrology, is that, like it or not, even Israel’s deeply embedded 8th house Taurus Sun square Mars in Leo with Saturn Pluto and Moon in Leo will be forced to shift attitudes in the coming decade and a half. Tr Pluto will oppose the Moon in 2026/27, then the Moon/Pluto midpoint in 2029, followed by oppositions to the Pluto, Saturn and finally Mars by 2041; with tr Pluto square the Sun in 2038/39. That is a poleaxing amount of pressure and grinding down.
There has always been an eerily 8th house feel about this eternal agony stretching back for decades. From Moritz’s book Pandora’s Box – “The eighth house is associated with entanglements – power games, boundary crossings or dealing with taboos. It is almost impossible to differentiate between good and evil, black and white, hero and villain. Things are muddled and mixed up.” Abuser and abused, victim and perpetrator.
To add a dash of fatedness, the Israel/Hezbollah relationship chart has three yods – Mars sextile Mercury inconjunct Neptune, Uranus Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mercury and Jupiter sextile South Node Neptune inconjunct Mars. As with all relationship yods there is something of the catalyst about their coming together since they prompt accelerated change. And they tie one to the other for good or for ill. Hezbollah would seem (dates being accurate) to be a crucial factor in Israel’s destiny.
“Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people” Dante Alighieri, The Inferno
“Through me is the way to the city of woe.
Through me is the way to sorrow eternal.
Through me is the way to the lost below.
Abandon all hope, you who enter.” Dante Alighieri, Inferno
“At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain.” Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Add On: Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians, describes it as “a war of all the superlatives”, adding that “the level of destruction is just staggering”. Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer working.
Gazans fear there will be nothing to return to when the conflict is over. guns finally fall silent and many reckon Israel’s goal is to make the strip uninhabitable.
One said: “Even if you allow us to go back tomorrow, how are we going to live? They destroy our homes, our investments, our factories, our trees, infrastructure — everything.”
Rebuilding will cost billions of dollars. An Arab diplomat said oil-rich Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, could help finance Gaza’s post-war construction, but added: “they won’t invest unless they know what the postwar situation looks like. They need to see real hope for a two-state solution, and they are not going to invest if it’s going to be destroyed two or three months later.”
In Malaysia McDonalds are suing BDS for fanning a boycott of the franchise for its connections to this human rights atrocity. I do believe that the action of suing when feelings are so high in the Muslim World will enrage people and increase boycotting of Starbucks, McDonalds and Marks & Spencer. My generation [young generation] are not tolerant of racism or war like this when it is unjust. Our purses maybe an effective way to shape how these corporations and these countries conduct themselves.
Marjorie, I saw that Netanyahu’s legislation on removing autonomy of the judiciary has been struck down by their high court today? That is a surprising after his driving this for the last year against the wishes of the people and disturbing the constitution. I can’t see where that country is going after this fiasco. Jewish people are distancing themselves from the Zionist plan. USA synagogues are becoming increasingly non-zionist which is something new here in American Jewry? Al Jazeera had ‘The Pain Inside’ looking at young Israelis moving out to Berlin, India and USA. The documentary ends with a young Israeli saying something like, “Israel was a social experiment. I do not think it will exist in the future”. After this calumny which is repelling the world and Jews themselves, this seems a reality.
Astrology question – why Pluto opposes moon is an analyzed as a meltdown?
Reality check about the article –
Read what Netanyahu said about the border with Egypt . To make it clear – I don’t support him like Most people don’t .(I am not living there ) But the reality is that Hamas used materials donated by EU to build weapons. They also used the Egypt border to transfer huge amount of weapons (under the ground through tunnels and through not inspected trucks). There are complex decisions to be made in Israel. While Hamas terrorizing Israel for at least 20 years . Throwing rockets that are getting better and farther into populated areas. Israel made sure to build protection . Otherwise you will hear at least half a millions dead in Israel. The same time Hamas took the money to build infrastructure that aim to destroy Israel. All embedded in the civilian infrastructure. Israel aim is not to destroy Gaza and control Gaza. The aim is that Israeli civilians can live peacefully at their homes. 7/10 was a shock and a wake-up call. Doing nothing and Hamas will enter Israel and butchered civilians in the most shocking ways.
How in the world do you ignore the horrors ,the senseless hatred towards the jewish people has brought?
The Palestinian people are not innocents. They hate the jewish state. Their children hate the jewish state.And their children’s children hate the jewish state. To them anyone that worships “God” is not human.
This has been going on sense the founding of the jewish state. Men and Woman tortured and worst. Babies murdered. Homes destroyed. Innocents killed for years and years. And when the Israelis finally attack you feel so bad for the poor Palestinians.
I am totally with you ! Hamas with Katar helped succeed in distorting the reality. In addition to pure antisemitism.
I have not time at the moment to answer this properly but no one disputes Hamas are a bunch of fanatics, psychopaths and thugs. It’s why they arose in the first place – like the IRA in Northern Ireland. You treat people badly you will get violence flaring up. This is a nightmare situation I grant you with no obvious solution but it has not happened without a back story. Go back on this website to October when the attack happened and read up on some of the historical context. It won’t give any easy answers at this juncture but it is not a simple right/wrong situation. And don’t even think about mentioning anti-Semitism which is a bullying and manipulative device for shutting down criticism of successive Israeli governments’ policies.
WOW, thank you.
Thank you, Marjorie, and Candy.
Exactly. So much tragedy, all around, and no easy answers, with lots of blame to spread around to many actors going back more than 75 years.
Pointing observation for unbalanced criticism around the world is not bulling . Before Israel responded to 7/10 there were both cheers of happiness and blaming of Israel. Pointing to Antisemitism is not bulling . It is reality that more Jewish people around the world are living with .
@Aye.
That’s all warm and fuzzy but Israel led by Netanyahu is doing to Palestinians what Hitler did to the Jews during WWII.
Furthermore, wrongly conflating criticism of the actions of Israel’s government with antisemitism will only further isolate Israel and Jews around the world.
The over-the-top responses of some American Jews to college protests and rallies supporting the Palestinian people (not Hamas) is just feeding into the long-time antisemitic conspiracy theories so Jews aren’t doing themselves any favors.
Netanyahu is prolonging the war because he and his right-wing government don’t want the truth about what they knew about what happened on 10/7 and when they knew it to be scrutinized by the light of day, but the truth always sees the light of day.
Aye, I agree on the wide spread anti-Semitism which I deplore but that has been weaponized – and devalued as an argument – by Netanyahu and his political predecessors to shut down all criticism and scrutiny of the punitive policies of successive Israeli government from the start towards the Palestinians.
Everyone feels sorry for the Israeli victims of Hamas. But Israel has failed to be proportionate in her response.
If you look at Kristallnacht, it was triggered by the expulsion of Polish jews back to Poland. A Jewish man called Grynszpan was upset at his family’s expulsion and went to a German embassy and opened fire. He was a terrorist in modern parlance.
The Germans reacted to the deaths of the diplomats with a pogrom. Like you, they believed all the jewish people were cheering on what Grynszpan did, and jews probably were because by this time they were full of anger about what the Germans were doing to them. The Germans destroyed about 7000 shops and synagogues in the pogrom, though they didn’t kill anyone.
The pattern is similar to now: people are oppressed, they lash out, the oppressors mete out disproportionate collective punishment.
Collective punishment is always wrong. It’s no good justifying it with “they’re not innocents” or “they cheered him on”. Because thoughts are not crimes.
Candy,
While I agree with your point that collective punishment is always wrong, I do want to point out the fact that hundreds of Jews did perish during and as an aftermath of Kristallnacht:
“Although murder did not figure in the central directives, Kristallnacht claimed many Jewish lives between 9 and 10 November. The official figure for Jewish deaths, released by German officials in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, was 91, but recent scholarship suggests that there were hundreds of deaths, especially if one counts those who died of their injuries in the days and weeks that followed the pogrom. Police records of the period also document a high number of rapes and of suicides in the aftermath of the violence.”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht
Seeing some of the parallels that took place during Kristallnacht and the October 7th Hamas attacks, I can certainly understand the deep-seated existential fear they triggered and the violence with which the Israeli government believes it has the right to retaliate.
It’s a shame that the Biden administration has decided to lean on the U.S’s own unexamined islamicphobia and desire for more power in the ME by aiding and abetting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, to the detriment of Israel’s future existence and safety of its citizenry (tr Pluto opposing natal moon, followed by n Pluto and n Saturn, then finally its n sun), rather than act as a true ally (which I keep wondering if we have ever been, especially with a composite Sun-Uranus conjunction in the 9th, and Mars in the 10th) and stop its self-destructive annihilation of its neighbor (an unevolved Venus in Cancer can be extremely cruel toward those the native views as the “other.”).
hello WiAS. VERY interesting last point you made… about the other side of Venus in Cancer!…. plus I see it is in the 9th house. So would not only be cruel towards the “other” but also wrap that up in righteous and dogmatic clothing.
I have Sun in Cancer and I know that place in myself…. the Cancerian experience of being hurt turns into a harsh rejection. I’ve had to work on that!
Hi Sandra,
Thank you for offering your (Cancer sun) perspective.
Anyone who’s bathed in Cancers’ warmth can attest to the fact that their nurturing qualities can be incredibly comforting, if not healing.
On the other hand, as you wrote, the Cancerian rejection can be truly chilling, and downright cruel (and even vengeful, depending on planetary placements and interactions).
Elizabeth Warren also offers a good example of both the protectiveness and tenacity of a more evolved sun Cancer.
It will continue until Netanyahu and his inner circle are removed. The violence secures his hold on power.
Israel has Chiron at 21 Scorpio 24, opposite the Sun at 23 Taurus 39.
So transits of Uranus to the Sun also aspect that Chiron (wounds being re-opened?)
In April transiting Jupiter will be conjunct the Sun as well. So perhaps they might get a temporary win in their war?
Wounds (Chiron) being reopened in unusual or unexpected/revolutionary (Uranus)?
In 2030 Chiron by transit will be conjunct Israel’s north node at 13 Taurus and square transiting Pluto in Aquarius and Israel’s natal Pluto in Leo. Things look to be reaching some sort of crescendo at that time as Mars and Saturn will be conjoining the Israel Sun in Taurus and opposing Jupiter at 23 Scorpio while Uranus by transit will be conjoining Israel’s Mars in Gemini.
Transiting Uranus will reach US Mars at 21 Gemini in 2030. That is usually when a major conflict involving the US, initiated at the Uranus return at 8 Gemini (in 2027-28), reaches its climax every 85 years or so. Last time was 1945.
I can’t add anything, but God it is sad. What a way to start a new year with no end in sight.
It is so sad. Your comment touched me ❤️
Majorie what were the astrological heavens prior to the end of South African Apartheid? Are they similar now? I can’t help thinking that Israel has no credible way of ever joining the civilised world ever again – Thus a program of decommissioning the Israel Project is a kind of key to understanding such irrational ‘Wars With Oceana’ craziness here?
Not really. When Mandela took over as President South Africa was on an exact Chiron Half Return and a Nodal Half Return as well. Israel has nothing similar in the immediate future. The early 2030s around 2032/33 has similar which is around the time of the tr Pluto square the Israel Saturn and just after tr Pluto square Pluto. Healing will be a long time coming.
After you will read all the terrible things Hamas(that are all Palestinians people ) did , you will definitely will think that they are not belong to the civilized world.
Endless vicious rapes. Violence against children while they screaming in pain . Killing the mom and the girls in front of the father then kidnapping him. Just one story…
Thanks Marjorie for further clarity on this vital, yet very depressing, topic today. I’ve commented elsewhere on Hezbollah and Iran, but had only just realised how their astro connects to the chart for the United Nations, 24 October 1945, with its Uranus at 17 Gemini slotting into the Jupiter in Gemini and Saturn in Pisces square in August, and all the aspects that makes with Iran and Hezbollah’s charts.
The UN has that Mars 23 Cancer conjunct Saturn 24 Cancer, with a 20 Aries ascendant catching April’s eclipse. And there’s the Israel ascendant at 23 Libra, and MC 25 Cancer. The Israel/Hezbollah Moon is 26 Libra, while the Israel/USA Mars is 24 Cancer. The UN’s hang on tight Mars/Saturn looms large for Israel, and for the Israel/USA relationship? The full Moon in October is 24 Aries, square Mars in Cancer – making its return to the UN’s founding Mars, the Israel/USA Mars, and conjunct the USA Mercury then. Perhaps talks are at least attempted then, after what I fear will be a very challenging summer for the world.
I find it slightly eerie that Pluto was at 12.39 Leo when Israel was founded on 14 May 1948 which is exactly opposite the 12.39 Aquarius retrograde Pluto in the 4 August 70 CE chart for the destruction of the Second Temple. Pluto will be revisiting that degree in Aquarius three times in 2030-31.
thank-you, Hugh.
Decades ago I saw the birth chart for Israel and that Pluto in the 10th struck me cold about their future.
The Wisdom of the Gods, in a way…. handing over a destiny of learning about Power (Pluto in the 10th) to a people and nation that had experienced so much Powerlessness. I knew that, one day, this was going to erupt into what we see today. I’m not giving Hamas a pass at all. However, this response from Netanyahu is so barbaric and raw that it has to come from a huge well of pain… generations of pain.
Now this next astrology that you offer…. oh my.
Marjorie, thank you for a very good but depressing analysis. One question. You note that Pluto will be square Israel’s 10th house Moon during 2025-26. It appears that Pluto will be opposed rather than square the Moon during that time, although I’m not sure it makes much difference. Perhaps I’m missing something?
Thanks yes. Typo – or rather brain glitch
A truly excellent post for the New Year on a question of major importance to the world. I will keep it for future reference. Israel will be the city of woe for decades to come. A striking recent cartoon in France’s le Point had an adult read to children the harrowing tale that when three great religions made the same region their holy land, it became damned. On a personal note, I have been focused on 26 Leo in recent years since I have Pluto in the 8th square Saturn in Scorpio at that degree conjunct the Moon at 28 Leo on the cusp of the 9th. I have spent a summer in a kibbutz on the border of Lebanon in my youth and to me, a relapsed Christian and now practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, this conflict and the fate of Tibet are personal. So emotional 9th house issues are tied to a fascination with the 8th in my chart. My Pluto-Moon are also in a yod with a Chiron-Mercury conjunction at 28 Cap-0 Aq and Neptune in the 10th at 28 Libra. Perhaps I may contribute that transiting Pluto has been inconjunct 26 Leo last fall, transiting Neptune will be inconjunct this year while Uranus will be square. The three heavy planetary hitters are battering 26 Leo simultaneously and this is bound to have major historic effects on the people and countries involved.
Thanks Interesting about the transiting yod – they are worth looking out for.
I have a Progressed planet yod at the moment which sounds obscure but it makes sense of how I feel – stuck, in a fog, waiting for enlightenment to strike.
Correction: my Pluto-Moon at 26-28 Leo is inconjunct Chiron at 28 Cap, sextile Neptune at 28 Leo and inconjunct Mars at 27 Pisces, which is conjunct transiting Neptune. The transiting Neptune-Pluto sextile is currently on my natal planets. Transiting Pluto is nearing natal Mercury at 0 Aquarius after passing natal Chiron for the last time. I also find that transiting Chiron is having a significant impact on my chart. I will ask you for a reading this year as my SA Sun will be at 0 Aries in 2025. (By the way, the US Chiron return should bring healing to the US chart this year as it did in 1974-75 when Nixon resigned and the Vietnam war ended; interesting that Kissinger died a few days ago. I think 2024 is the end for a former bad President.)
Ha! Thanks Andre. I have Mercury at 26 Leo. It took me quite a while to realise that the Pluto/Neptune sextile was making a yod to it, but how it all made sense once I did. All things Mercury were chaos and threw up some very tough challenges in the circumstances and people around me, plus domestic machines all broke or died one after another. Less concerned somehow with the Uranian influence, I think it may simply blast through some of the mud and fog remaining from Pluto and Neptune!
Trump’s Mars is at 26 Leo. I believe Marjorie mentioned elsewhere there will be a Mars-Uranus-Algol triple conjunction square that degree in July. Sounds like an explosively difficult time for him at the Republican convention and for Netanyahu as well. Watch your Mercury and I will watch my Pluto-Moon next summer.
“To add a dash of fatedness, the Israel/Hezbollah relationship chart has three yods – Mars sextile Mercury inconjunct Neptune, Uranus Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mercury and Jupiter sextile South Node Neptune inconjunct Mars.”
At the risk of derailing the topic at hand, Marjorie, can I request you to cover yods in synastry and in composite charts as a topic in itself?
I ask because I have been looking at the chart of my new-born niece. And improbably, she has yods with every female in the family (myself, my mother, my aunt and my sister-in-law, the niece’s mother). With the men of the family (my brother and father), it is all grand trines and smiles. And almost all the yods involve the further planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) in some way.
I hadn’t come across yods in readings before and then to find it in almost every single synastry chart for a person foxes me.
See post August 15 2023 – relationship yods