Blogs provide a dynamic medium well suited to fairly brief, but frequently posted articles. Often, this proves to be very challenging. In some cases it inevitably requires either a narrowing of focus or leaving out significant elements.  I would like to have included the various Time Lords events over the last six decades. I would have preferred to discuss the relationship of the charts to each other and to other elements. If there is significant interest I will post a second article addressing these issues. In the meantime, this venue lends itself to interaction and discussion.

There are two charts of immediate relevance to Pakistan. The first is of course the 1947 Foundation Chart. The Second, which will be the primary focus of this article, is the 1956 chart for the inception of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The first chart appears to be an arbitrary one, with little or no astrological considerations. A brief survey of this chart reveals many weakness and few strengths.

Mars in his Fall in the third House, indicating among other things, quarrels with brethren. Using Porphry, he is in the Second House which isn’t any better.He is also Lord of the Twelfth House of hidden enemies.  Venus, dispositor of the Ascendant is  Combust, Oriental and Peregrine. According to the rules of Bonatti the Ascendant is the Hyleg. Luna is well placed in her Domicile as is Sol.

But the house placements do little to help the situation. Had the chart been cast after sunrise there would have been a few possibilities for a far better chart, albeit far from perfect. A weak Jupiter in the Seventh House with the South Node is far from ideal. I think it’s fairly safe to say this was not the work of  competent astrologer.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that what is promised in the chart won’t come to be.

The Muslim state of East and West Pakistan was created out of the partition of India at the end of British rule in 1947. This immediately lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in widespread communal violence and made millions more homeless.

Jinnah with Gandhi

In 1948, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding leader of Pakistan, died amidst hostilities between the new State of Pakistan and his previous homeland.

The first war with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir ensued. Pakistan and India have been hostile to each other ever since.

Jinnah, like Gandhi, was educated in England, enjoyed wearing his tweeds and had adopted many of the habits of an English gentleman. He was embarrassed by Gandhi’s traditional dhoti.

Ghandi had told Jinnah that Islam and Hinduism were the two eyes of India. It is a very great irony that Jinnah wasn’t considered to be religious at all. Gandhi offered him Muslim control of Parliament and many other concessions, but Jinnah wanted  a separate state, secular if possible. India and Pakistan were never again to enjoy mutual friendship. The cut had been too deep.

Pakistan has also been at war with China, fought a proxy war against the Soviet Union and been in a state of undeclared civil war for most of its existence.

Let’s turn now to the chart for the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. If astrologers were involved in the creation of this chart, we can at least see what they might have been trying to do. It certainly provides a rich portrait of the intrigues of Pakistani politics and society.

Pakistani Shiite Muslim women shout slogans during a protest to condemn February 16 2013 bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Angry residents on Sunday demanded government protection from an onslaught of attacks against Shiite Muslims, a day after scores of people were killed in a massive bombing that a local official said was a sign that security agencies were too scared to do their jobs. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

The Aries Sun rising in it’s exaltation makes for a very strong Ascendant / First House. Venus, strong in her Domicile in the Second House should be a great blessing, sparing the new Republic from poverty. Islam is under the governance of Venus . This chart has Venus for Day and Hour lord. She is also Lady of the Geniture, dispositing the Libran  Seventh House of partnerships and open enemies.

Pakistan is rich in resources with adequate, fertile land to feed all its people. It also rich in emeralds and copper, both under the governance of Venus. Oil and natural gas is plentiful and until recently the northern regions of Pakistan were a popular destination for tourists and adventurers until its domination by the Taliban.

However, there is another dimension to this. Pakistan has been under dictatorship, mostly by the military for 32 years of its short life and it is very difficult not to associate the Sun in Aries with the military, particularly when we find an Exalted Mars reigning unopposed from the Tenth House.

The Sun is the chart Almuten.. Mars is however informed by Saturn in his Debility, Retrograde and Peregrine. Using Porphry Houses, he is in the Eight House which makes things a lot worse. Moreover, Saturn is in the Exaltation of the South Node, while being with the North, again reversing the possibility of desirable results.

Saturn is disposited by Jupiter, also Peregrine and Retrograde with a Peregrine Moon in Leo. The Moon is in partile suqare to Venus. To me, this reeks of corruption and with the House placement religion cannot be excluded from the equation in a chart for an Islamic Republic.

So we get the sense of the military being supported by corrupt officials, and that includes clerics. Mercury in his Fall in the twelfth House merely amplifies the extent of intrigue. The Eleventh House of the Good Spirit is also disposited by Saturn, so Mars is ill-informed and supported.

The charts tells us that the enemies of the state are also a part of it. Internal corruption is well known both inside Pakistan and Internationally. Internal threats are worse than external ones. A country that carede for its own wouldn’t allow persistent drone strikes killing men, women and children

Pakistan is one of what the UN has refered to as “multi dimensionally poor.” This way of measuring poverty takes many facets of life into account, including of course the distribution of wealth.

The fact is, Pakistan is not a poor country collectively, but with the world’s fifth largest military and cursed with a string of some of the most corrupt politicians in the world.

The ordinary citizen is left in need of basic securities, functioning utilities and protection from seemingly endless sectarian violence against the Shia, the Sufis, the Ahmadi, Hindus and Christians. Pakistan is one of an ever diminishing number of nations to live with this religiously inspired violence, although she is by no means alone.

The people are poorly served as seen by the Sixth House. The Part of Fortune is with the people, but is disposited by a very weak Mercury in his Fall in the Twelfth House where the Syzergy, the New Moon 21 Pisces 58 in the twelfth House.

[The video below is Fatima Bhutto speaking at the Sydney Writers Festival in 2011. Her discussion of the state of Pakistan is well worth watching.]

In closing, this chart matches what we knew about Pakistan, while offering another level of depth and interconnectedness. The strengths of this chart are many, but I think an astrologer would have found a way to diminish the power of the malefics. I also think they would have chosen a chart for zero degrees Aries to align perfectly with the Spring Equinox – Naruz and the Astrological New Year. The chart clearly isn’t the result of adequate thought and skill, unless of course the intent was malevolent.