Can zodiacal releasing predict world events?
Striking examples from the Israel-Palestine conflict suggest it can
This article assumes readers have a basic understanding of the Hellenistic timelord technique zodiacal releasing. For those who don’t, astrologer Blaze Maximus has a good introduction to its philosophy and practice here. For those with more time on their hands, Chris Brennan has a characteristically comprehensive four-hour episode of The Astrology Podcast on ZR here.
My article focuses on recent history in the Israel-Palestine conflict. I would like to state clearly that my concern here is exclusively astrological. I recognise and respect the strong feelings this conflict evokes in people of all persuasions. Nothing in this article is intended to indicate support for or opposition to any party; my only wish is for peace.
The al-Aqsa Mosque is one of Islam’s three Sacred Mosques. It is the third-holiest site on the planet for Sunni Muslims, believed to be the location of Mohammed’s ascension to heaven. Yet the ground on which it stands is known to Jews as the Temple Mount. It’s believed to be the site of Solomon’s First Temple, as well as that of the Second Temple, and is the holiest site in Judaism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the site serves as the spiritual epicentre of what may well be the world’s most intractable conflict.
On Friday the 15th of April 2022, the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem was the site of violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli riot police. More than 150 people were injured and 400 arrested in the largest outbreak of violence in the holy city since the last major eruption of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just one year ago.
Unfortunately, I’d seen this coming. Here’s what I wrote in my article on Pluto through the bounds of Capricorn, published more than a month ago:
Given the pattern we’ve observed with Ukraine, it seems reasonable to suspect that, sadly, there could be a resumption of conflict in Israel and Gaza this year. I hope I’m wrong. (As an aside, zodiacal releasing for Israel’s chart from the Part of Fortune suggests the country is entering a very dangerous period on 14 April, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.)
Now, tensions are usually high in Jerusalem during Ramadan, and many observers were expecting an outbreak of violence around this time. But Ramadan started on the 2nd of April. Astrology—and specifically the technique of zodiacal releasing—showed almost precisely when that violence was likely to break out.
My point here is not to celebrate myself for getting a prediction right—it’s to show that astrology works. I think it’s vital that astrologers aren’t shy about showing what our much-maligned art can do. And correct predictions are more powerful testimony to astrology’s validity than retrospective analysis. But, more specifically, in this piece I want to present some tantalising evidence that zodiacal releasing can be used to make accurate mundane astrological predictions. We’re going to look at the last two years of history in Israel, and see how ZR times two serious outbreaks of violence almost to the day.
Zodiacal releasing and the Israel chart
Here’s the A-rated natal chart for Israel, data taken from Astro Databank:
Zodiacal releasing assigns periods of time to the various signs, during which the various planets hold sway as “timelords” and can enact their agendas. What’s immediately apparent from the Israel chart is the challenging grouping of planets in the sign of Leo, the 11th house: Mars, Saturn, Pluto and the Moon. This tells us clearly that Leo periods, and any periods ruled by the fixed signs in hard aspect to Leo, are likely to be challenging, since they will be under the influence of both Mars and Saturn, the malefic planets. Scorpio periods are likely to be the most difficult of all, since both malefics are in an overcoming square to that sign.
Now let’s look at the table for the zodiacal release from the Lot of Fortune for Israel. When it comes to individuals’ charts, zodiacal releasing from the Lot of Fortune speaks to health and matters of the body, as well as things that happen to a native that are out of their control. I haven’t figured out exactly how the significations of the various lots used in ZR apply to states yet, but my working assumption is that for a state such as Israel, ZR from Fortune will speak to events like natural disasters, violence and war, economic health and things taking place on its territory that affect national security and territorial integrity.
Now, we can see that Israel is currently in a Level 1 Aries period ruled by Mars, the malefic contrary to sect, which began on 17 May 2016. Aries is angular to the Lot of Fortune in Capricorn and is thus likely to be a relatively active and formative period for Israel. On Level 2, Israel entered a Leo period on 17 December 2021, and as we’ve seen, both Mars and Saturn are in that sign. On Level 3, it began a Scorpio period on 14 April 2022. As mentioned, Scorpio periods are likely to be the most challenging periods for Israel. Taken together, we have indications on Levels 1, 2 and 3 that Israel entered a period with strong malefic influence on 14 April 2022. That’s why I made the prediction I did.
On 15 April, just a day later, we saw the huge outburst of violence at al-Aqsa. As evidence that ZR is predictive of current events, I find that compelling.
Annexing the West Bank, Loosing the Bond
If you found that interesting, I have another example. To follow it you’ll need some background about recent history in Israel-Palestine.
The West Bank is home to around 3 million Palestinians and almost half a million Israeli settlers. It’s considered by most observers to be under military occupation, after Israel conquered it during the Six-Day War in 1967.1
In 2019 and 2020, former Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu stated several times that he planned to annex parts of the West Bank. The reality is that large parts of the West Bank are already de facto part of the State of Israel. Some Israeli settlements in the region are already sizeable cities. But formally declaring large swathes of the West Bank to be Israel’s sovereign territory would have been seen as a huge provocation by Palestinians and their allies.
Palestinians, who officially seek their own state comprised of the whole of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, were furiously opposed to the plans. In response, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally ended security cooperation with Israel and called on the international community to punish the Israeli state.
Many observers argued that annexation would mean an end to the possibility of the “Two State Solution”, the ever-more-quixotic idea that Israel and Palestine might agree to exist side-by-side as separate states. Many believed annexation would lead to war and a dramatic breakdown in the uneasy peace that has generally held in the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Without hope for a state of their own, Palestinians would have nothing to lose by turning to violence, the argument went.
In the end, Netanyahu backed down. In mid-August 2020, Israel signed the Abraham Accords, a historic peace deal with the United Arab Emirates, a country that had been hostile to Israel for decades. Part of the agreement was that Israel would “suspend declaring sovereignty” over the West Bank. The annexation plans, at least for the time being, were dead.
To summarise: Netanyahu threatened to annex parts of the West Bank, which could easily have led to war. But then he backed down.
Now let’s look at the zodiacal releasing at that time:
These events took place in the Level 2 Cancer period (shaded) that began on 28 November 2019. Looking at Israel’s natal chart, we see that benefic Venus is in Cancer, which would seem to bode well for the quality of these periods. It’s striking that Israel signed that historic peace deal in this period, clearly signalling the influence of peace-loving Venus. But Venus is out of sect, so her benefits might come with a catch. And the ruler of Cancer, the Moon, is not doing well at all, given that she shares Leo with Mars, Saturn and Pluto.
Now look at the sequence of periods on Level 3. Netanyahu formally backed down on West Bank annexation in mid-August 2020, in the Capricorn period that began on 2 August 2020. What’s interesting about that is that this period was foreshadowing a Loosing of the Bond to Capricorn on 9 May 2021. (You can see that marked by the asterisk next to the date in the table above.)
Loosings of the Bond are periods indicating significant developments or changes in direction. They occur when a given ZR period has cycled through every sign of the zodiac and is about to return to its initial sign. Instead of returning to that first sign, the sequence jumps to the opposite one. This dramatic interruption in the zodiac’s natural flow is generally matched by dramatic events in life.
Foreshadowing periods are a key related principle. They occur when the sign of a Loosing of the Bond is reached for the first time within a given higher-level period. The events that take place during a foreshadowing period hint at what is promised at the Loosing of the Bond. Often, a native almost does something in the foreshadowing period, but backs down for some reason. Then, at the Loosing of the Bond, they go ahead with that thing, and dramatic changes occur in the life.
We can see in the table above that the Capricorn period that began on 2 August 2020 foreshadowed the Loosing of the Bond on 9 May 2021, when Capricorn was once again activated.
Now, I was living in Jerusalem and following both the news and the zodiacal releasing of the Israel chart in 2020-2021. I knew the Loosing of the Bond was coming on 9 May 2021, and that it was being foreshadowed by Netanyahu’s almost-annexation in the first Capricorn period. My guess was that, come the Loosing of the Bond, Israel would go ahead with those annexation plans.
I was wrong. Instead, here’s what happened (from the Wikipedia entry on the “2021 Israel-Palestine Crisis”):
An outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot control, rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Israeli airstrikes targeting the Gaza Strip.
In other words, what was being foreshadowed by the Capricorn period was not annexation, but war, which broke out one day after the Loosing of the Bond. Once again, I think that’s a compelling suggestion that ZR works for mundane astrology.
One last thing
A final note on the current situation in Israel. Tensions in Jerusalem haven’t dissipated since the violence of the 15th of April. On Monday the 18th, Gaza militants fired a rocket at Israel, which responded with a retaliatory air strike. At the time of writing, tensions at the mosque are sky-high, as Jewish nationalists defy police to hold a flag-waving march through predominately Palestinian parts of Jerusalem’s Old City. The situation looks combustible.
Unfortunately, this is how timelord systems like zodiacal releasing work. They speak to periods of time, not moments. Israel will remain in this dangerous Scorpio period until 21 May 2022, suggesting tensions are unlikely to die down until after then. I believe the denouement of this current episode will come from 18-21 May. This is when we reach the Leo period on Level 3. Leo contains Mars, the ruler of the Scorpio period currently activated, and encounters with period rulers in ZR are generally moments when the real meaning of a period is revealed.
Despite zodiacal releasing’s often frightening precision, we must believe there is always scope for human agency to influence outcomes in a positive way. I sincerely hope that the parties can find a way to de-escalate the current situation.
Some people dispute this, referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” and claiming it as an integral and historically important part of Israel.