M A Y   2 0 0 2   F E A T U R E   A R T I C L E

by Maya del Mar

In 1998 I wrote an article for The Mountain Astrologer entitled "The Holy Land—Gateway Into the New Millennium." That is still an apt description.

In the first place, as I said then, the vibrational shift from Millennium One to Millennium Two is enormous. One is the number of self-interest, the pioneer, the starter, who meets all challenges with competition and the desire to win. Two is the number of cooperation, where we recognize the rights of others and work together towards justice and harmony. Unless one has been working for years to make that transition, as has Europe, it can be a massive leap to move from a society of competition to a world where we cooperate.

What more appropriate stage to make that leap than the Mideast, where the jealous, vengeful, competitive religions have such a long and intense history? Jerusalem is the Holy City for Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths. There they do, in fact, live on top of, next door to, and intertwined with one another.

Although Israel is trying mightily to solidify its Number One position, it cannot do so without a blood bath such as that of King Herrod around the time of the birth of Jesus. It cannot do so, for Number Two values have gained too much currency in the world since then, and secrecy is becoming more difficult.

With transformative Pluto traveling through Sagittarius, the sign of religions, now is the time for all fundamentalisms and cracks in religions to bubble to the top. Pluto is an extremist. In the Holy Land we see these three religions, which preach love and harmony, supporting violence in their names (and this includes U.S. support for Israel).

Saturn now opposing Pluto is pitting established institutions against Pluto’s cathartic influence, and they are resisting change. (The sex scandal in the Catholic Church is another example.)

Israel is the Taurean focus of the times.

In May 2000 we had the signal conjunction for the new millennium. This was the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 23 Taurus, which set a 20-year business-social cycle. This was the last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in earth signs for approximately another 600 years, and Taurus is the earthiest of the Earth.

It’s like a last chance to ground ourselves on the earth, to find our tangible spot and our tangible work, as well as to clean up our problems with the earth element, such as greed and lack of perspective and compassion. We are also preparing for the next 200-year air cycle, which begins in 2020 with Jupiter and Saturn meeting in Aquarius. This will be a communication cycle.

Israel was born, under the aegis of British mandate, on May 15, 1948 at midnight in Jerusalem. Its Sun is at 24 Taurus, close enough to that of the conjunction in May 2000, to be a prime representative of that Taurean grounding process.

Many of the people now running the world were born around the time of Israel. Like Israel, they have a strong Leo representation in their charts. Leo is King of the Mountain, very much a Number one.

Israel has Mars, Moon, Saturn and Pluto all in Leo. Leo ways are what she knows about how to get (Mars) what you want (Moon). You assert your right to it, and stand firm. We see that evolution has given Israel, and the world, a large obstacle to overcome to move from One to Two. We have lots of precedents, and support for that shift, with international agreements, to move to Two. But One can simply deny them if it’s strong enough to take on all comers—which Israel and the U.S. are.

We can all look at Israel as a model, and see in what ways we are resisting moving into the Number Two vibration. We can also look at the value of finding peace, the means of getting there, and see how harmony and cooperation must, these days, ally with peace and justice.

This is a Juno problem. Peace, with justice, is represented by Juno. So is abuse, fear, and terrorism.

According to myth, Juno was once the Great Goddess, overseeing all life. When the patriarchy took over, she agreed to become Jupiter’s wife, and was honored as the goddess of married women. She tried to create an amiable, cooperative, equal relationship with Jupiter. But he was not having it. He shamed her by consorting with other females, and Juno would become angry. One time he hung her for days by her ankles to put her in her place.

Juno in a chart shows where we want intimacy, and are willing to give to it, and also where we are subject to abuse. President Clinton has Jupiter in his first house of self (along with Venus and Mars, the Lovers), and Hillary has Juno on her seventh house cusp, where you face your partner. She has played a classic Juno role.

In a mundane (public life) chart, Juno is always a sign of victimization, abuse, and disenfranchisement. I have come to see with both public and personal charts how Juno shows where we are terrorized, or subject to great fear.

Juno was overhead in New York on 9-11. She was also overhead when the Declaration of Independence was signed, sending her vibes down on the new country. (There was lots to be afraid of! From wilderness to starvation to native Americans to British soldiers to the policies of the British crown, and much more.)

Israel has Juno rising; she lives with terror. And so does Palestine (11-15-88, 0:40 AM, Algiers) have Juno rising! Fear meets fear. Ariel Sharon (2-27-28) has Juno oppose his Sun, and Yassir Arafat (8-27-29) has Juno oppose his Moon. Terror is intimate for both of them, but with an opposition, that fear comes from the "outside." They have found ways to protect against it—Sharon by commanding—Sun—and Arafat by being a man of his people—Moon.

(Notice how Israel and Palestine are exactly six months apart, and so are Sharon and Arafat. They are opposites facing one another, the Gemini twins. Sharon is Juno-Sun, and Arafat Juno-Moon, another pair. They are surely chosen by destiny to face off against one another!)

Dick Cheney also has Juno rising. And GW Bush has Juno exactly conjoined his Moon. This pair can feel keenly and promote the terror doctrine.

Juno is now traveling in the royal sign of Leo, and has been since September 3, 2001, when Israel and the U.S. walked out of the Durban Conference on Racism. No planet in the Sun’s sign of Leo will be denied or subdued, and Juno is a major planet for both the U.S. and Israel.

Over the following months, Juno traveled both direct, and then retrograde, in Leo over the Leo planets of Israel and of GW Bush (and of many world leaders), stirring up their natal fears of terrorism. Juno turned retrograde on December 26, 2001, when the Israeli-Palestine conflict markedly escalated. Suicide bombing increased, and the Israelis made an armed invasion of Palestine.

On March 29, 2002, Juno turned direct at 16 Leo, an eclipse-sensitive degree. Sharon began then the destruction of Palestinian cities.

Juno turns a new page when she enters Virgo on June 14, between two Eclipses. Virgo is the Juno sign of Palestine, of Sharon, and of Dick Cheney, and during the month of June (Juno’s month—thus June weddings) each of them will begin a new four-year Juno cycle. Let us visualize a vibration of conciliation and cooperation moving through all.

Fear dominates much of the world right now, as Juno, having a prominent place in important charts shows us. But Taurus, too, has a deep insecurity. I think it’s because earth itself is such an insecure place for airy spirit to anchor. And yet for those of us who have anchored here, it provides our path, our home, our learning cauldron. We have an inner mandate to master the earth plane. But earth is so heavy! It’s slow and difficult. Its gravity really ties us down.

Taurus must learn to handle all of the earth goods—land, food, possessions, and the money which represents them. Can it do so? Can it have enough? Hang on hard enough? There are always doubts. (I used to do financial evaluations. I learned to recognize Taurus by their first sentence, which was something like, "I really don’t have much." And yet invariably they had more assets than other clients.)

We have lots of Taurus in this Israel-Palestine drama. Besides Israel’s Sun, Yassir Arafat and Ariel Sharon both have their Moons in Taurus, close to the Sun of Israel. Taurus has to be determined to hang in here on Earth—and it is. We see it clearly in this prolonged conflict.

Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. are, in effect, a world demonstration of the problems of the competitiveness of Number One, and of how that style creates insecurity, rather than security. The lengthy struggle in the land of Palestine shows that over time things get worse, not better. Obviously something’s wrong with that approach to problem-solving.

Taurus, Earth’s special sign, serves as the stage. And Juno marks the fears.

Juno’s deep fear is of the patriarchy, and patriarchal methods. And the patriarchal methods of guilt, crime, punishment, and revenge can only aggravate the problem, and do. It’s no accident that we are looking at the conflict of patriarchal religions, and perceiving loud and clear how ineffective confrontational solutions are in terms of a more harmonious world, which is a goal in fact of each of these religions.

The New Moon on May 12 at 22 Taurus lights up and invigorates all of these special Taurus points—the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction, Israel’s Sun, and the Moons of both Arafat and Sharon. These Taurus points will receive a special impetus, and the opportunity for a new start with this New Moon. A new moon will not occur again around this degree for another 19 years.

AND—This New Moon in Taurus exactly squares Juno at 22 Leo! Squares are, yes, difficult and challenging. But they are extremely creative.

AND—amazingly, 22 Leo is the degree of GW’s Venus! He is uniquely placed to tip the scales here, towards harmony or towards conflict. We can help by sending him visions of himself as being remembered in history for solving the Palestine-Israeli conflict.

Juno does show, after all, where we want to cooperate. When we dissipate fear, these very same prominent Juno placements can help us create harmony, which is Juno’s real desire.

As usual, the key lies in compassionate communication. We will talk more about that in Juno’s month of June.