Daniel Heydon
Astrologer - Numerologist - Author
Astro-Analyzing the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty
Astro-Analyzing the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty by Daniel Heydon
Published in Dell Horoscope September 1979
A look at the chart for the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of March 26,1979, will confirm much of what the media told us. Saturn in Virgo in the second house reminds us of the economic burden that this treaty will place on the American economy. Three planets in the eighth house, including Mars, ruler of the ninth house of foreign countries and formal legal further indicate that foreign aid is a major ingredient of this pact. Mercury retrograde tells us that there are further details to be worked out. The fact that Mercury rules the eleventh house of Congress, as well as friendly nations, and the second house of finances shows that we have not heard the last word yet as to how much this agreement will cost us and that there will be further amendments to the peace treaty.
One hesitates to look at the aspects, for it is common knowledge that it took sixteen arduous months of arm-bending and cajoling to get this far. The road ahead to implement the peace will be just as difficult. Trines will confirm the hopes of optimists; squares will add to the reservations of those who already believe that, after 3000 years, peace in the Middle East seems like a dubious dream.
But every chart has squares and trines, and the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is no exception. The Sun rules the ascendant; in a mundane chart, the Sun is often the significator of the head of a nation. This luminary, in the ninth house, trines Jupiter in the twelfth. Perhaps this Jupiter is the miracle-maker that enabled President Carter to live up to his Libran Sun-Sign potential of diplomacy and helped him to rescue the treaty from oblivion at the last moment. Certainly, he should feel proud that he was able to accomplish this feat. This cadent Jupiter speaks of inner joy and also suggests help from invisible sources as answers to his prayers for peace. Note how transiting Jupiter at 29° Cancer had just passed over Carter's Midheaven at the time of the signing of the peace treaty. However, Mars at 21° 11' Pisces in the peace treaty chart opposes Carter's Mercury, ruler of his ninth house, indicating possible future aggravations.
Venus, also a significator of the head of a nation as it is the ruler of the tenth house, is posited appropriately in the seventh house of treaties and relations with other countries. A personal planet, it indicates Carter's intimate involvement in the negotiations. The fact that the heads of Egypt, Israel, and the United States were co-signers of the treaty accentuates the brotherhood aspect of Venus' placement in Aquarius. But the square of Venus to Uranus, ruler of the seventh, shows the touchiness that was evident among the negotiators. Remember Prime Minister Begin's threat at Camp David to pack up and go home and President Sadat's refusal to meet with Begin and Carter in Washington just prior to the signing?
In a natal chart, Venus square Uranus often indicates, in the words of Grant Lewi, "considerable disappointment through misplaced or frustrated affections." In the peace treaty chart, it suggests that the temperament of the participants makes cooperation difficult. It also indicates that when one of them compromises in the spirit of Venus, he will at the same time feel his freedom and independence curtailed. At times, this aspect makes one unyielding, even though it is to one's best interest to compromise.
But the world has already witnessed Carter's sometimes cruel detachment, Begin's nit-picking, Sadat's wiliness. The presence of this aspect in the peace treaty chart indicates that we are likely to again. In other words, this is a fragile treaty. It's durability could snap according to the feelings of the participants—and the result would indeed be a sense of misplaced trust.
It is no wonder then that we marvel at the achievement of these men of diverse but similar temperament. If, at times, the negotiations resembled a soap opera— "Will Sadat Leave His Cabin at Camp David and Speak to Begin?"—blame it on the planetary correlations between these men's natal charts. However, if any reader has doubts about the sincerity of the handshake in the name of brotherhood after the signing, he or she should be relieved, for chart comparisons reveal there is a genuine bond of friendship among these leaders of state.
Close up of Mendham Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat at Camp David., 09/07/1978
Carter's Venus at 23° Leo conjoins Begin's Sun. Sadat's Jupiter at 12° Cancer conjoins Begin's Venus, both of which conjoin the U.S. Sun at 12° Cancer. Also, Sadat's Venus-Jupiter (the planets of peace) midpoint at 11° Libra conjoins Carter's Sun within three degrees. That that is a strong Venus connection between these men of peace is underscored by astrological analysis.
Unfortunately, there is an obverse side to the coin. Carter's Mars at 26° Aquarius conjoins Sadat's Uranus by one degree—a potentially warlike and hostile aspect! But before we jump to negative conclusions, remember that both of these planets conjoin the peace treaty's Venus. A positive reading of Sadat's Uranus here would be that this planet signifies his innovative step of initiating the negotiations. On the day of his historic visit to Jerusalem, the Sun was at 27° Scorpio; Venus at the same degree of a fixed sign in the peace treaty chart would indicate a natural unfoldment of the potentiality of that visit.
Begin, too, has an important Uranus contact with Sadat. His Uranus at 5° Aquarius conjoins Sadat's Mars within one degree. That these men can irritate each other and cause tempers to flare is dramatically shown by this aspect. Indeed, cooperation would be almost impossible if it were not for the harmonious Venus aspects mentioned earlier between these charts. In short, the strong Venus and Uranus contacts between these men's personal charts are emphasized and confirmed again in the peace treaty chart's Venus-Uranus square.
However, harmony among nations is not solely dependent on the compatibility among their leader's charts. The United States has had a special interest in the State of Israel since its inception. This is reflected by the U.S. Jupiter conjoined to Israel's Venus at 5° Cancer. Since transiting Venus conjoined the U.S. Jupiter on May 14, 1948, it is not surprising that the United States was the first nation to recognize Israel's right to exist eleven minutes after its birth. Harry S. Truman, the president at that time, had his natal Venus at 4° Cancer in conjunction with the Venus of the chart of the new nation.
Interestingly enough, a chart for the U.S. recognition of Israel progressed to the time of the signing of the peace treaty shows the progressed ascendant at 23°37' Scorpio opposite Israel's Sun and the converse ascendant at 5° Libra square Venus at 5° Cancer. This' would place the peace treaty's Sun on the converse seventh cusp. Significantly, Carter's Saturn at 1°55' Scorpio is one degree and twenty-four minutes from an exact conjunction to the recognition chart's ascendant. This shows the seriousness with which he approaches U.S.-Israeli relations and the difficulty of this task. It may help to explain why he seems at times to display a hard line when dealing with Israel.
An interesting case can be made for the validity of Dane Rudhyar's chart for the Declaration of Independence when we realize that the Moon in that chart is at 27°12'30" Aquarius, exactly twelve seconds from the Venus in the peace treaty chart. Should that Moon position be correct, it also opposes Israel's Mars within one degree, which would show that the American people are indeed stirred up by the subject of Israel.
What is perhaps an incredible example of synastry among charts is that this same Venus at 27°12'42" Aquarius exactly opposes the Moon 27°12' Leo in the oldest extant chart for the people of Arabia, as given; in Noel Tyl's Astrology: Mundane, Astral and Occult. This chart is drawn for the arrival of Mohammed in Medina after he had been driven out of Mecca. In addition, the twenty-seventh degree of Aquarius in the peace treaty chart also makes aspects with three out of the four charts for modern Egypt. Although the chart for the restoration of Egyptian independence on March 14,1922, at 10:43 P.M. GMT and a subsequent chart at 10:00 A.M. EET on March 15, 1922 , have been superceded by other charts for Egypt, Mercury is posited at 27° Aquarius in both these charts—and this was the government that invaded Israel in 1948. We should also note that the chart for the United Arab Republic (June 18,1953, 11:30 P.M., GMT.) has the Sun at 27P24' Gemini, which trines Venus in the peace treaty chart.
If this analysis has overemphasized the importance of Venus at 27° Aquarius in the peace treaty chart to the detriment of other important factors, it is in part because both Sadat and Israel have planets opposed to this degree. Sadat's Saturn at 28° Leo conjoins Israel's Mars. Involvement with Israel's Mars has certainly brought Sadat difficulties of a Saturnian nature in the form of loss of territory and unsuccessful conclusions to two wars.
We would naturally expect this Mars-Saturn conjunction of warlike activity to be opposed to the planet of peace in the treaty chart. This placement in and of itself does not necessarily bode ill will for the treaty. However, the solar eclipse of August 22, 1979, was at 29°01' Leo and conjoined Israel's Mars and Sadat's Saturn and opposed the peace treaty's Venus. This, in turn, is followed by another solar eclipse on February 16, 1980, at 26°50' Aquarius; it will conjoin the peace treaty's Venus, Carter's Mars, and Sadat's Uranus. These eclipses will trigger Sadat's Saturn-Uranus opposition. He may be torn between his allegiance to peace and his allegiance to fellow Arabs. What adds potency to these eclipses is the fact that Sadat's progressed Uranus will be at 28° 03' Aquarius in exact opposition to his natal Saturn.
With the help of Jim Lewis' Astro* Carto*Graphy maps for 1979, we can get a clearer picture of the effect that the August eclipse will have on Sadat. Usually, an eclipse on one's Saturn does not speak well for the head of state or his country. However, this August eclipse is accompanied by Venus at 28°14' Leo, which softens the blow and could mean further progressive developments for peace.
This eclipse conjoins the midheaven of Washington, D.C. A triple conjunction of the Sun, Moon, and Venus in the nation's capital brings success to Carter. The fact that Jupiter, too, lends its beneficence at 22° 05' Leo to Begin's Sun and Carter's Venus promises good tidings. However, in Cairo, Saturn at 14°54' Virgo conjoins the descendant, which could mean further responsibilities or difficulties in connection with foreign relations. On January 16,1980, Mars makes a station at 15°21' Virgo, thereby prolonging the influence of this eclipse for the Egyptians until June oi that same year.
The ascendant for Egynt at the time of the February eclipse has 23° Taurus rising —the same degree as Israel's Sun. Pluto is one hundred five degrees from the mid-heaven, and Uranus at 25° Scorpio, having just passed the opposition to Israel's Sun, is in the seventh house. In Israel, the nadir hovers near that country's natal Pluto, suggesting perhaps territorial changes. Most important, however, is that the eclipse itself conjoins Venus in the peace treaty chart. Uranus in upper square to the eclipse and the peace treaty's Venus may touch off the Venus-Uranus square in the peace treaty chart.
But to dwell on the negative potentialities of the peace treaty chart is to miss the spirit of the day on which it was signed. Egypt's recognition of Israel's right to exist marks the first time since Solomon met with a Pharoah 3,000 years ago that these people have been close to peace. Though the media have familiarized us with the framework for peace that was agreed upon, an occult framework for peace also exists in the symbolic meanings of the degrees posited at the four angles. Perhaps the Daily News had an intuitive sense of the significance of these degrees when it simply reported on March 27, 1979: "And finally, at 2:10 p.m. yesterday, by the bare, winter-gnarled elms in front of the White House, but also in view of spring's first colors of rebirth—the blooming forsythia on the lawn—a Moslem, a Jew and a Christian gathered behind a 19th-century mahogany table to sign their names to a treaty marking the end of 31 years of war in the Mideast."
In the Sabian symbols, we have a guide to the archetypal truth of the meaning of the Vertex in the Peace Treaty chart. For 2° Capricorn, in An Astrological Mandala—Dane Rudhyar's revised interpretations of these symbols—it reads: "Three rose windows in a Gothic churrh, one damaged by war. Keynote: The necessary realization by any individual making a violent use of collective power that it will lead to the inevitable destruction of some of the values ensuring group-integration." In other words, as Rudhyar points out, the symbol refers "to the disruptive consequences of war."
The Sabian symbol for 16° Leo rising reads: "The storm ended, all nature rejoices in brilliant sunshine. Keynote: The surge of life and love after a major crisis." As Rudhyar says, "How brilliant the light after the long 'night of the soul'! . . . The first and most basic level is that of life itself, and of the overcoming of its many crises—the Joy and Power of New Beginnings."
The Sabian symbol for 16° Aquarius on the descendant reads: "A big businessman at his desk." The media noted how Calvin Coolidge used the mahogany table for the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemned war as a means of settling international disputes. Rudhyar says of this degree, "The New Age should be one in which man learns to use the power generated by human togetherness and group interplay—that is, to use it harmoniously for the welfare of the whole of which all individuals are parts, humanity and the planet Earth. This has never been achieved and only very rarely attempted."
The Sabian symbol for 7° Scorpio on the nadir is obscure—"Deep-sea divers. Keynote: The will to explore the hidden depths of all experiences and to search for primordial causes." Perhaps, superficially, this refers to Carter's tour in the Navy. In a way, his experience with submarines prepared him for this encounter with ancient animosities that have some of their roots in the primal meanings of the Piscean Age. But life itself provided us with an ironic counterpoint to this symbol: The champagne for the assembled guests was chilled and stored in two old fishing boats!
Finally, the Sabian symbol for 7° Taurus on the midheaven reads: "The woman of Samaria at the ancestral well." Rudhyar says of this degree, "Early in his ministry, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at an ancestral well. The woman belongs to a tribe despised by the Jews; moreover, she is unmarried and therefore on the fringe of even her own society. It is to just that kind of woman Jesus reveals that he is the Messiah. . . . What does this mean? Jesus as the Avatar incorporating the Christ-Impulse, came to replace the old tribal order with a new order based on universal Love."
1. Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandate; Vintage Books, Random House, 1974. 1 Note: This and all subsequent references to the Sabian symbols are from this book.
