– Saddam Hussein
final words, 30 December 2006

The swift and sudden execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in pre-dawn Baghdad on Saturday, 30 December 2006 turns the final page on the life of one of the twentieth century’s more brutal, if more useful, dictators. Supported and manipulated by the US for decades in its struggle with joint enemy Iran, Hussein’s oil ambitions eventually ran afoul of the first Bush administration, and resulted in the First Gulf War in 1991, followed by more than a decade of ongoing conflict until the second Bush administration felled the paper tiger in 2003, citing specious grounds of imminent threat and weapons of mass destruction.

Until his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Hussein was a valued and coddled ally of the US. The US supplied Iraq with the technology and materials for the chemical weapons he used in his nearly ten year war with Iran, and turned a blind eye when he unleashed those same weapons on his own Kurdish minority.

Hussein’s regime, though brutal, kept a lid on the sectarian violence which has since devastated Iraqi society, and maintained a stable and thoroughly secular state in the midst of a turbulent Mid-East, to the benefit of the vast majority of its citizens and the region as a whole. The debacle that has ensued since his fall, due entirely to the inability of the present administration to foresee and prepare for the power vacuum that would result from his departure, can be ranked as possibly the most inept foreign policy action in our country’s history.

A quick resume of the most important dates of Hussein’s life and career shows a startling pattern of Black Hole involvement, albeit a simplistic one. With current time restraints, I chose to simply look at Hussein’s birth chart, and at solar positions at key moments to determine the degree of galactic entanglement.

Born 28 April 1937, Saddam’s natal Sun at 7 Taurus is opposed the Black Hole at 6 Scorpio, and we shall see that each of the significant turning points in his career includes a Black Hole Sun. Days on which the Sun interacts with Black Hole energies often produce dramatic, life-changing events, watershed moments which over the course of a lifetime provide the direction and shape the major outlines of a biography.

Other galactic factors apply. Hussein had an exact Jupiter/Pluto opposition from 26 Capricorn to Cancer, which keys on the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius by semisextile and inconjunct. Galactic Center contacts often indicate eventual prominence at whatever level the individual aspires to. In this instance, Hussein’s was a name notorious globally. Mars at 4 Sagittarius exactly conjoins a Black Hole, a possible indicator of bloodthirsty and brutal actions, a ruthlessness of gargantuan proportion, particularly when allied with natal Mercury at 24 Taurus, also exactly conjoined a Black Hole. Mercury/Black Hole can enable dispassionate, reality-disconnected decision making; that is, the human ramifications of decisions can be more easily set aside in preference to the policy goals which underpin them.
Saturn at 0 Aries, the prototypical rash but effective leader, is opposed the supermassive Black Hole center of Galaxy M-87, the largest anomaly of its type of which we are aware, holding more than 130 associated galaxies in its thrall, and is the signature of the power-hungry executive. Additionally, Hussein’s natal Venus, Uranus and Neptune square Black Holes, making his chart a complete matched set of galactic energies.

Key dates in Hussein’s career, and their solar galactic encumbrances, are as follows:

• 1 June 1972 Hussein, acting as Deputy for Iraqi President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, nationalizes Iraq’s oil fields; Sun at 11 Gemini opposes Black Hole at 10 Sagittarius.
• 16 July 1976 Hussein forces resignation of ailing al-Bakr to become Iraq’s President; Sun at 23 Cancer squared Black Hole at 24 Aries.
• 22 September 1980 Start of Iraq-Iran War; Sun at 29 Virgo opposed Black Hole at 28 Pisces.
• 16 March 1988 Gassing of Kurdish town of Halabja, one of Hussein’s more notorious acts; Sun at 26 Pisces squared Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius.
• 2 August 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait, precipitating First Gulf War; Sun at 9 Leo conjoined Black Hole at 9 Leo.
• 16 January 1991 Allies begin hostilities to free Kuwait; Sun at 26 Capricorn square Black Hole at 26 Aries.
• 20 March 2003 US invades Iraq; Sun at 29 Pisces conjoined Black Hole at 28 Pisces.
• 9 April 2003 Baghdad falls; Hussein deposed; Sun at 19 Aries square Black Hole at 19 Capricorn.
• 13 December 2003 Hussein captured in ad-Dawr; Sun at 20 Sagittarius conjunct Black Hole at 19 Sagittarius.
• 19 October 2005 Hussein’s trial begins; Sun at 26 Libra opposed Black Hole at 26 Aries.
• 5 November 2006 Guilty verdict rendered; Sun at 12 Scorpio square Black Hole at 12 Aquarius.
  

Ironically, the final act in Hussein’s drama, his execution on 30 December 2006, is less active with regard to Black Holes. At 8 Capricorn, the Sun is still within the event horizon/orb of the Black Hole at 5 Capricorn, but its most striking aspect is the exact opposition to the Quasar at 8 Cancer. Quasars provide manifestation and fulfillment, the crowning achievement of a project, plan, or lifetime, and provide high visibility and public profile. As such, it is perhaps fitting that his hanging should have occurred then, with the world agog and attuned to his fate.