Yasser Arafat | Paris, Nov. 11, 2004, 5:16 p.m. "We are fighting because we want to live in peace." So said the man who has waged war on Israel since 1964 and, among other things, was involved in the 1972 massacre of the Israeli Olympic team. Still, so powerful a symbol of Palestinian freedom was he that he remains, if not unassailable, a puzzle that one somehow has to respect. However, he left the planet earlier this morning after spending about two weeks ailing at a military research hospital as a guest of the French government. While three birth charts are recorded, there is probable birth data reported by an astrologer I consider reliable; I will link to that data below, for which no chart is displayed; see Aug. 24 chart. Arafat's death chart, however, is not disputed. He died at 3:30 am on Nov. 11, 2004 in Paris. The chart is stunning. In recent months I have written quite a lot about the Aries point and the June 21, 2001 total solar eclipse, which I consider to be the real chart for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks; you might say, the foundation chart. On numerous occasions, transits to this chart have brought developments in our knowledge and understanding of Sept. 11, and the unrelated but related Iraq war. This is in fact the first solar eclipse of the 21st century (there was a lunar eclipse in January 2001). The total solar eclipse took place the first day of summer, thus in the first degree of Cancer. This is the same degree that's on the 10th house cusp of Arafat's death chart -- the house of admiralty, high office and authority. The degree ascending in the Arafat death chart is the first degree of Libra. The cardinal points occupy all four angles: the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. The Aries Point (or by extension, any of the cardinal points) always brings in the larger public and has consequences and ramifications far beyond what is initially obvious. [At the bottom, I'll add a link that helps explain why that might be, to a recent Planet Waves article.] There is more. This morning was the third of three occultations of planets by the Moon. You will see the third of these in the Arafat's death chart -- the Moon occulting Mars just in the last moments before Mars returns to its home sign, Scorpio. It actually occurred to me before going to bed that Arafat might die under this astrology; the potency of a Moon-Mars occultation combined with the last degree of Libra seemed to suggest that. Note that the Moon and Mars change signs within a very short time: the Moon at 6:06:05 am CET, and Mars at 7:10:55 am CET. At the time of Arafat's death they are conjunct, applying, to 11 minutes of arc. I assure you that every astrologer in the Middle East is looking at this chart in amazement thinking: wow. Mars. Two other recent news events involving a Moon-Mars occultation involved the death of UK weapons expert David Kelly in early 2003, and the election of Arnie as governor of California seven months later. Mars, as ruler of the 8th house (notice Aries on the cusp) represents the cause of death. At the very end of Libra, about to go into Scorpio, you could say that he had reached an endpoint, and that the world had reached the end of a cycle. At least the symbolism for an ending or death is strong in the chart. Now here is something that you would have to be both an astrologer and a conspiracy freak to fully appreciate. Do we all remember that Bush was selected president the night of a Mercury station? And that this particular station was after Mercury had retrograded through Scorpio, and then dipped back into the very, very tippy edge of Libra, that is, at 29 degrees and 56 minutes? This happened just as the polls closed in Florida that night. This was the exact location, within arc minutes, of the Moon-Mars occultation under which Arafat died. If we put this chart around the Sept. 11 chart, we see stuff; Venus is exactly in the Ascendant of the Sept. 11 horoscope (which has 14 degrees and change rising). There are many other connections. So here we have it: Arafat's death chart has some highly unlikely connections to the first selection chart of George W. Bush; to the pre-Sept. 11 total solar eclipse on the summer solstice; and to the Sept. 11 chart itself. How interesting that Arafat died of "an unknown illness" amidst some of the most qualified physicians in the world. Maybe they should put "Moon occult Mars in the last degree of Libra" on the death certificate. Arafat's death chart: http://planetwaves.net/astrology/arafat.html The Aries Point: http://planetwaves.net/astrology/libram87.html Arafat's birth charts (courtesy Astrodatabank): http://www.astrodatabank.com/NM/ArafatYasser.htm The Sept. 11, 2001 chart, with article: http://www.ericfrancis.com/planetwaves/9eleven1984.html Bruce | Nov. 10, 2004, 9:24 a.m. One of the things I've taken from the campaign of 2004 has been Bruce Springsteen. I've always felt a deep connection to this man and I love the south Jersey beaches and boardwalks where so many of his early songs are set. This is where my mother Camille grew up -- in Asbury Park.I have has a friend named Jenny who as a teenager got into many of the early E Street Band shows because the bouncers kinda liked her. I have never seen him perform. We have the same favorite novel -- The Grapes of Wrath, the only book I've read five times, which was the basis of my absolute favorite Springsteen album, Darkness on the Edge of Town ("The dogs on Main Street howl / Because they understand / If I could take one moment into my hands / Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man / And I believe in a promised land"). Steinbeck is pretty much why I'm a writer. All you really need is one person to point the way. As Springsteen's career developed, his songs changed themes from his own rather Sagittarian quest for freedom -- Born to Run, for example ("These two lanes can take us anywhere") -- to recognizing the struggle of others who cannot break out of their own lives. Lately I've been listening to songs from The River on the boxed set that I recently got at a local American record store. It took me a few times through before I really understood what the title song was about: a young man whose beloved girlfriend became pregnant and whose youth ended too soon. ("For my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat"). He is haunted by memories of what it was like to be alive and passionate. He remembers. His wife acts like it all never happened; that's how she deals with it. Don't forget. Remember, because as long as you do, you have that passion and you can express your life force. If the river runs dry, go where there's water. Or go where there's fire.