Zimbabwe in crisis – Political theatre, tanks, vested interests and China.

There is a very interesting power play going on in Zimbabwe at the moment, but what is really going on? Is there an official coup in progress against 93 year old President Robert Mugabe? Then again, he has been seen on the national TV service that the military now control, at home and seemingly in control. It appears that he is confined to home, but free to speak. What’s going on? Let’s take a closer look…

Now understandably in the past year, the ailing Mugabe was starting to look towards the future, and his much younger wife Grace (52) was becoming more and more influential. There was a problem though as the general Zimbabwean public hated her aggressive approach, and also her insatiable spending habits. She was starting to get a reputation as the African Imelda Marcos as time went on. Earlier this month Mugabe sacked the vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, in a visible sign that he wanted his wife to succeed him, and within a week, the military sensing that there would be public unrest if Mrs Mugabe took hold of the reigns in the country, acted to take control for themselves. Before they did, it's reported that military leaders flew to China before the crackdown began, and here the plot thickens. Did China approve the move before it happened? China has very close ties with Zimbabwe with many Chinese firms involved in projects in the country. Things become even more complicated if you realise that the military are an integral part of the Zanu PF party, the revolutionary party that Mugabe is the leader of. There is a very convoluted web of control going on here, and trying to unpick the truth of who controls what and why things have happened goes much deeper than the initial view on things. What we do know is that within 24 hours of the military action taking place, Grace Mugabe had reportedly fled to Namibia and is now in exile. It's almost like she was pre-warned that this was going to happen, and she cleared out before she was pushed. The Astrology of all this is very interesting, as I will now try to show you.

Independent Zimbabwe was formed on 18th April 1980 at midnight in Harare, thus it is an Arian nation born out of the war of liberation from minority white rule in the late 1970's. You can see that intrinsically on the natal chart with the Aries Sun trine to Mars, the North Node of destiny and Jupiter, the planet of diversity and ethnic concerns. This was a revolution too and Uranus is tied into these three planets through a set of three tense square aspects and you can see the revolutionary fixed tyrant in Mugabe through that Uranus in the 10th house of leadership, can't you? That Uranus resides square to the Zimbabwean Nodal axis, at odds to the direction that the country should be going, and Mugabe has been a constant impediment to the wealth of the nation. He is the only leader the country in it's present state has ever known, and he ruled with a rod of iron while the general population have suffered in poverty, even though this is a country of abundance and plenty, formally known as the bread basket of Africa.

As you might expect, Robert Mugabe natal chart is tied into the Zimbabwe one. Mugabe was born on 21st February 1924, and so he is a rather slippery Sun sign Pisces with his his Sun sitting at 1 degree of that sign conjunct to the South Node. That places his natal Sun and South Node in conjunction with the Zimbabwe South Node at 1 degrees Pisces. There is a synergy between the two that is inescapable. Mugabe's Saturn sits on the Zimbabwe Midheaven, it's place of administration, and his harsh way of ruling has hung over the nation for 37 long years.

Funnily enough, Mugabe is not ego driven and for much of his reign he stayed in the shadows, letting the security forces and the military at his disposal control keep the population in check. If you spoke out of turn, you tempted arrest by the authorities. His mismanagement of the economy saw incredible price rises and he racked up eye-watering interest rates, keeping the population poor and dependent on the land to keep them surviving. By doing this, he kept development to a minimum under the premise that an agrarian population was less likely to rise up and rebel against the leader than an upwardly mobile industrial one. In astrological terms, that Sun/South Node connection indicates to me that Mugabe would have been a drag on the country, in essence deliberately holding it back like an anchor holding a ship to the sea floor. The South Node is indicative of lessons that we already know, and they don't take us forward to learn the lessons the take the experiences that we intrinsically need to progress. This is true of all South Node connections, even on mundane national charts.

So why has all this kicked off now? Well let's go back to August and the total Solar eclipse the world experienced on 21st August 2017. It occurred at 28 degrees Leo and in terms of Mugabe and Zimbabwe, the eclipse landed in the the country's 8th house of inevitable change conjunct to natal Jupiter as well as natal North Node & Mars. On Mugabe's natal chart it opposed his natal Pisces Sun and it eclipsed his own North Node. The future and destiny of this country was going to be affected, friends of the nation would be affected (the Chinese) as would be the political parties (Zanu PF) as Jupiter rules the 11th house, the military would be activated (Mars) and Mugabe would also be implicated.

We have the first quarter New Moon coming up very soon since that Leo eclipse in the sign of change and transformation Scorpio, and this impending New Moon I believe is triggering the eclipse of three months ago, being square to the previous eclipse point. It will also at 26 degrees Scorpio conjunct to that natal Uranus in the Zimbabwe chart, the planet of change and revolution. We have a picture of change going on now in the skies above us, with Mars square to Pluto and Saturn trine to Uranus. All these factors coming together are forcing the wheel of fate to turn and for even the most intransigent and died in the wool situations to face the inevitable. If you read my summary for the Astrology of the day for today, I mention that the Mars Pluto square is encouraging secret, under the covers, manipulative actions that we don't notice on first impression and you currently need to look beyond what initially looks to be the case of the matter.

 

And what of China I hear you ask? What is the Chinese influence on all this. Well the Chinese chart aligns exactly with the Zimbabwean one, with the Chinese Ascendant at 1 degree Aquarius exactly conjunct to the Zimbabwean one, also at 1 degree Aquarius and the Chinese natal Moon at 3 degrees Aquarius ties into the picture too. There is some emotional involvement from China here, but that Aquarian Moon is very cool and keeps it's distance. That's how China operates, keeping a fixed control on things, however never by acting themselves. They operate “by proxy”, calling the shots but staying out of the direct line of fire. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Chinese sanctioned the military action to protect their investments in the country of Zimbabwe. They will want to see an orderly change of power, as does the military. I suspect they pre-warned Mugabe what was going to happen, sanctioning the almost painless coup to go ahead. Virtually no shots have been fired, there has been precious little resistance and yet Mugabe stays safe and “in charge” under the protection of the military. Very convenient for all. Do you think that the Chinese really wanted Grace Mugabe running the country? Not a chance. This is as I see it a direct slap on the wrist from Xi Jinping to Mugabe to tow the line, to get her out of the way, and to make him more carefully consider who should follow on after he finally steps down.

Looking ahead a critical moment will come in April 2018 when Uranus makes an exact conjunction to the Zimbabwe Sun at 28 degrees Aries and at the same time starting to make a sextile to his Pisces Sun. Expect Mugabe to rule from the comfort of his “house arrest” until a suitable successor is found to take over the Mugabe legacy...