Abimael Guzmán, ‘a Marxist megalomaniac’ and former philosophy professor whose Shining Path movement inflicted a reign of terror on Peru, has died in prison. He rose from academic obscurity to mesmerise his followers into provoking a civil war in which 70,000 died, until the atrocities he set in motion lost the sympathy of the people he claimed to represent. He created a cult of personality, despite evidently being a monumental bore, seeing himself as a leader of the world revolution which would be sparked by his triumph in Peru. He regarded himself as a god and for a while succeeded in creating a highly disciplined, fanatical, brutal and hierarchical guerrilla movement that controlled large stretches of the national territory.
Born 3 December 1934 he was a Sun Venus in Sagittarius square Neptune, which fits the philosophy teacher; with a revolutionary Uranus square Pluto. And two Yods of Mercury in Scorpio sextile Mars inconjunct Uranus, further accentuating his disruptive Uranus; and a brutal Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Saturn in Aquarius. He also had an obsession-for-a-cause North Node in Aquarius.
In 1980 when he started his movement his Uranus square Pluto had moved by Solar Arc to connect with his Sun Venus which makes sense of infusing his identity with his warped revolutionary ideology.
He is spoken off in the same terms as Pol Pot, the genocidal Marxist-Leninist leader of Cambodia, whose reign of terror saw quarter of the population wiped out from assassinations or starvation.
Pol Pot, 19 May 1925, was a Sun Taurus square Neptune, sextile Uranus and trine Jupiter; with his Neptune on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Jupiter and Uranus – so both his Neptune and Uranus were emphasised – as in Guzman’s chart. Pol Pot also had an even more brutal combination of Mars Pluto conjunct trine Saturn. Pol Pot’s North Node is in the ‘leadership’ sign of Leo. His birth date may be questionable but it looks feasible enough.
I’ve always seen one aspect of Leo / Aquarius as being about how groups are led … autocracy vs democracy. Neither works without some of the other.
It’s notable to me that Napoleon, a Sun Leo, rose during the last Pluto in Aqua era. I wonder if we may see more Leos taking control during the next decade or two.