The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: An Exploration in Mundane Astrology

I was planning on following up last month’s study of the assassination of William McKinley with an equally colorful event from British history. As all my readers will have noticed, however, Francis Fukuyama’s famously silly claim that history stopped during the first Bush administration got another hard disproof over the last week or so, as the puppet government in Afghanistan installed by the US got brushed aside with contemptuous ease by the Taliban militias, resulting in one of the more embarrassing foreign policy fiascos of recent American (and world) history. On August 19th, the Taliban duly proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan; my sources indicate that this happened around noon, which is enough detail to allow a foundation chart to be cast.

The date and time at which a new government is proclaimed has the same role in mundane astrology that the birth data and time of an individual has in natal astrology From the foundation chart, you can judge something of the character and destiny of the government. The one difference is that it’s not easy to choose when you get born, but governments can choose when they get proclaimed. If they happen to be founded in a part of the world where astrology is commonly practiced, and have the common sense to consult a competent astrologer, they can elect a time for the proclamation of the new government which will give it the best possible start in life.

This, accordingly, the Taliban did. The Muslim world has a long and very rich astrological history; Afghanistan is well stocked with learned astrologers; and one of them put some serious work into choosing the time and date for the proclamation. (See the attached chart.) Let’s go through this chart step by step and see what the Taliban’s astrologer worked out for them.

First in importance for any government is the condition of the Sun and the 10th house, since the first of these rules the head of state and the second rules the government in general. This chart did the sensible thing and combined the two by putting the Sun conjunct the midheaven. The Sun is in his rulership in Leo, and also in his day triplicity, so he is very well dignified essentially; he is conjunct the midheaven, and thus very strong. (My guess is that the actual time of the proclamation was a little before noon, while the Sun was still in the 10th house and therefore angular.) Sun conjunct midheaven makes the government prosperous and popular and brings good fortune to the country.

The one drawback with this placement is that the Sun is opposite Jupiter. It’s a strong opposition; since Jupiter is retrograde, both planets are moving toward each other, a condition called mutual application. Sun opposite Jupiter disturbs trade and commerce, guarantees religious disputes, and predicts scandal and trouble involving members of the government. Why did the astrologer choose a date that had this problem? Because other factors were important enough to outweigh that, and you have to take what you can get from the heavens. One of the great challenges in electional astrology is that you can never get a perfect chart, and so you do your best and warn your clients what to watch for. (We’ll discuss what to watch for in Afghan politics and society a little later on in this exploration.)

So the Sun is in about the best possible position for a new government. Let’s go on to the other factors affecting the 10th house. Two planets, Mars and Mercury, are very closely conjunct in that house. Mercury is in his exaltation in Virgo; Mars is dignified by mixed triplicity in the same sign; both, of course, are in an angular house and therefore strong, and as we’ll see, both receive considerable help from aspects. Mercury well dignified in the 10th is favorable for trade, commerce, and education, as well as for government ceremonials—including the proclamation of a new government! Mars well dignified in the 10th brings victory in war and makes the country and the government successful and strong.

Both these planets are also on the receiving end of the most favorable aspect pattern in astrology, the grand trine. The grand trine is the equilateral triangle you see dominating the chart, with Mars and Mercury at one point, the Moon at another, and Uranus at the third. A grand trine functions like an ordinary trine on steroids; it brings planetary energies into a harmonious balance and leads to calm, peaceful conditions. Mercury conjunct Mars is usually a difficult aspect, promising civil unrest and constant turmoil; with the influence of the grand trine at work, these indications are greatly minimized, suggesting that compromise between competing factions will be the order of the day.

What makes this fascinating is that all three points of the grand trine are equally troubled. The Moon is in Capricorn, the sign of her detriment, and Uranus is in Taurus, the sign of his fall. These would be seriously problematic, except that the influence of the grand trine will tend to counteract the negative influences of these planetary positions. The Moon in the 2nd house with any dignity at all is very favorable for national prosperity, and the grand trine amplifies that. Uranus in the 6th is a much more difficult placement; even when well dignified, he promises discontent and disaffection among the work force and the military, and problems with public health; these will happen, especially in the rural regions of the country (Uranus rules the 4th house of the hinterlands), but the grand trine offers some hope of resolving them. By choosing a time when the planets were aligned in this pattern and Uranus was weakly placed in a cadent house, so that it will have less effect than otherwise, the astrologer really earned his fee.

Many people in Western countries are concerned about the status of women under the new Taliban government. The Taliban, or at least their astrologer, seem to have had that in mind as well. Venus is the planet that rules women’s concerns in mundane astrology, as Mars rules men’s concerns; Venus in this chart is in her rulership in Libra and her one aspect is a trine with Saturn, thus she is very well dignified. Expect women to be subject to traditional restrictions (Saturn is the planet of conservatism) but otherwise in a considerably less difficult position than they were under the earlier Taliban regime twenty years ago (Venus in her rulership). Since Venus is in the 11th house of legislation, expect to see laws governing women become an ongoing issue in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Venus also governs the 7th house of foreign policy, since the sign on the 7th house cusp, Taurus, is ruled by Venus. Expect the new government to follow through on its promises to maintain good relations with its neighbors and to stop terrorist groups from using Afghan territory for bases. (The last thing the new government wants is another 20-year occupation by whatever foreign power decides to stomp terrorists next.) Other nations wanting to trade with Afghanistan for its substantial mineral resources will be enthusiastically welcomed by the new government (the 8th house of foreign trade is ruled by Mercury well dignified in the 10th) but should be aware that ongoing instability in outlying regions will be an ongoing source of trouble (Mercury conjunct Mars). The new regime will also have an easy time getting foreign investment, with Iran, Russia, and China among the likely sources—here again, this is shown by Mercury’s rulership of the 8th house.

More generally, the Taliban can be expected to pursue its conservative Muslim religious agenda, especially in the fields of communication and culture. This is shown by Saturn’s placement, in and ruling the 3rd house of the media, writing, and communication. In modern astrology, Saturn is in his day triplicity in Aquarius, but in all probability the astrologer who cast this election was working with traditional assignments, and so considers Saturn to be in his rulership in Aquarius, therefore strong. He is cadent and retrograde, however, and so the ability of the Taliban to advance its cultural agenda will be more limited than it would otherwise be.

Jupiter in this chart is on the cusp of the 4th house, and if I’m correct and “around noon” means just far enough before noon that the Sun was in the 10th house, Jupiter will have been in the 4th house of agriculture and resource industries. This is where the opposition between the Sun and Jupiter may turn out to be problematic for the new government. Afghanistan has abundant reserves of commercially valuable minerals; in an era when many other supplies of these minerals are running short, this means that a great deal of money can be made by mining those minerals and selling them abroad. With Jupiter retrograde and opposing the Sun, the risk of spectacular corruption and the “resource curse” that has devastated so many other poor nations is not small. Since Jupiter is in the 4th house of the rural hinterland, the most likely source of trouble is regional warlords and tribal confederations in outlying areas cutting their own deals with foreign mining firms, evading control and taxation by the central government and weakening the national economy (Jupiter ruling the 2nd); since the Sun is so well dignified, the government will be able to push back hard, but this will be a continuing problem for many years to come.

Another problem is indicated by Neptune retrograde, angular, and in his rulership in Pisces, placed in the 4th house and ruling the 5th. Neptune is among other things the ruler of narcotic drugs, and Afghanistan is one of the world’s major growing regions for the opium poppy. During its previous era of power 20 years ago, the Taliban succeeded in stopping opium production—a detail that may have contributed to its downfall, if the longstanding rumors concerning CIA involvement in the global drug trade are correct. This time, even if the government attempts to shut down opium production, it will not succeed in doing so. The cascade of problems that unfold from the drug trade in other parts of the world that produce large quantities of narcotics will inevitably become a significant problem in Afghanistan as well. Expect drug money to spill into various corners of Afghan society, generating rapid boom-bust cycles (Neptune rules the 5th house of speculation) and fueling resistance to the new government’s religious and moral regulations.

These are significant problems, but the Taliban’s astrologer had to work with what the heavens provided, and he did a very good job. Over the next few years, in the light of this chart, I expect Afghanistan to settle down and become one more relatively ordinary Central Asian Muslim nation, with pervasive but not crippling problems generated by the drug trade and by corrupt deals involving its mineral wealth, a national economy about as prosperous as a poor Central Asian nation can expect, and ongoing skirmishes between the religious beliefs of its leaders and the less straitlaced notions of many of its people. I certainly hope the country experiences something along those lines; the last 20 years of corrupt US-backed governance and endless war have been very hard on the Afghan people and they deserve a less difficult future.

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The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: An Exploration in Mundane Astrology