In contrast to the normally smooth flow of my articles, this one was written in the midst of events taking place in Bangladesh in the last several hours. Everything changed from minute to minute, and its reflected here. Rest assured, my normal style has not been lost. On that note, here’s the article with my thanks for your understanding:
In chaotic events, numbers change. Today offered great examples of that. Originally, breaking news reported six to eight attackers having taken 20 or 30 hostages in an apparent terrorist attack at 8:45 PM Friday night. Most if not all of the hostages are believed to be foreigners. Two police constables and a civilian were shot in a Western restaurant, O’ Kitchen, frequented by tourists in Gulshan, an upscale diplomatic neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The three are injured; two other unidentified people are dead. According to CNN, “the restaurant is a bakery by day, a Spanish restaurant at night.”
Shiva as Mrityunjaya, the Conquerer of Death – 12th century – Bangladesh or India (Bengal), Pala Period
At 10:30 pm, an explosion was heard. Early reports seem to be hazy as to whether these are another trio of injured people or the ones reported earlier. Two of the attackers were slim, appeared to be under 30, carrying firearms and at least one carried a sharp weapon. As they entered the restaurant, said one person who managed to escape, “the attackers were shouting “Allahu Akbar.” The Italian baker and his wife are believed to have been shot. Their condition hasn’t yet been noted. An officer-in-charge of the Banani police station was killed at the scene.
Updating now: At this time, 40 people including 20 members of the local police, have been injured. Two police officers have been killed. Seven of the hostages are Italian, and it is now known that there are nine gunmen. As reports continue to come in, ISIS claims 24 have been killed in addition to the 40 injured.
Bangladesh has been the site of many brutal murders especially over the last year with religious figures, atheists, authors and educators dying at the hands of often unknown assailants wielding machetes. Earlier today, around 6:30 AM, a Hindu priest was hacked to death by three people on a motorcycle. They too had a machete to kill the priest as he collected flowers for religious rituals.
Earlier this month, another Hindu priest had been killed in the same village, Jhenaidah, as well as one of the staff from an ashram near a monastery in another town. ISIS claimed these attacks. On the other hand, the current siege on Dhaka (also spelled Dacca) has not yet been claimed; but ISIS has claimed responsibility for 22 attacks in which 20 people–including non-Muslims, non-Sunni preachers and foreigners–were killed.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, the Awami League-led government has stated these killings were intended to destabilize the nation and simultaneously embarrass the government and led by local outlawed militant groups including the Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh. CNN has just indicated that the site “Intel Group” has indicated ISIS as having claimed this attack. Rita Katz of SITE intelligence has confirmed and quoted Amaq, a Salafist militant group-run news agency. Tom Fuentes, a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, says there will be no negotiations, that the attackers want to die and for the hostages to die as well. The terrorists have made no demands.
Scorpio rises in the chart with a Western-dominated, 3rd quadrant and an even North-South horizon split. This appeared to have been another generally well-planned attack at least in the sense of coordination efforts between the attackers.
The Peeling of Life’s Onion stands strongly with the 4th house placement of Neptune in square to Saturn in the 1st house in what I personally would call a 2nd house placement but others use tighter orbs and would prefer to see the 1st house as its position. Nevertheless, what’s especially notable is the Mars conjunction to the Ascendant. Mars as the traditional ruler of the Ascendant and therefore the chart sits quite well positioned for this attack, especially with Pluto, the modern ruler of Scorpio and the chart, in a 16-minute partile sextile to the Ascendant.
While many also might be hesitant to call the Mutable aspect of the Saturn-Neptune square a T-square since Jupiter is 5° in orb of an opposition to Neptune, I still find such an orb highly relevant. Note as well that Jupiter forms a conjunction to the North Node. The Nodes are frequently involved in hard aspect to these events, and that’s certainly true here.
Bangladesh – natal inside, SR 2015 middle, attack outside
I’ve been looking at several charts related to today’s attack including the Solar Return (SR) for 2015. With the natal chart in the center, you can see the 8th house rising in the 2015 Solar Return and the attack in the extreme outer chart. Now I did this for a reason:
Take note of the Ascendant for the attack falling on the Midheaven (MC) of the Solar Return, both of which are simultaneously conjunct the 6th house cusp. Also take note of the natal and SR Sun as the arm of the T-square between natal Mars and the SR Jupiter opposition with transiting Jupiter now moving into place to oppose Mars a third time. But Jupiter is also forming an approaching square to natal Jupiter. Transiting Chiron “steps in” with a conjunction to SR South Node, bringing the Nodes into play with the square to the natal Sun.
Also see how the SR Ascendant forms a conjunction to the natal chart’s North Node which may not have any context for you until you note the perfected semisextile between the Solar Return MC progressed to today, the opposing midpoint of which falls at 20 Cancer 56, establishing a perfected Resonant Blooming Undecaquartisextile with the third point in a 37-minute partile opposition to natal Venus! The SR MC also forms a 1°55′ opposition to transiting Mercury. Mercury’s antiscion at 25 Gemini 59 establishes a 26-minute partile square to the SR Nodes. And yet another bit of “icing” on the cake shows with transiting Pluto forming a 14-minute partile conjunction to SR Pallas in 15-minute partile square to SR Uranus!
For those of you who work with Pallas, I’ll point to its transiting conjunction to SR Neptune while transiting Vesta forms a just under 2° conjunction to the natal Ascendant. Perhaps Vesta wouldn’t be that important, but consider the SR Moon in its 20-minute partile conjunction to natal Vesta! SR Mars also forms a conjunction to natal Uranus while transiting Uranus forms a semisextile to natal Mars, resulting in a Resonant Blooming UQSXT at 9 Libra 09.
That fourth house energy comes through in the chart when we consider the environment–a homey restaurant called O’Kitchen. It was also a Spanish restaurant, and people looked for tastes of home here as well. Many diplomats and their families came here for great Italian bread they knew to expect from the bakery portion of the business–Holey Artisan–in the daytime.
Now, in these charts, the Resonant Blooming Undecaquartisextile (UQSXT) energizes this kind of environment where local area folks look forward to those flavors that satisfy their nostalgia. Here is where one understands the Portuguese word saudade.
There are still many more contacts in these charts, especially when one is looking at the triple wheel. Transiting Venus at its antiscion forms a fairly tight Mutable Grand Cross in square to the transiting Nodes and Jupiter in opposition to Saturn and in square to transiting and SR Neptune.
12th house rising in 2016 Solar Return chart inside, natal outside
