Much ink has been spread speculating as to why four young Muslim men should have become suicide bombers, killing themselves and over 50 others in London on 7th July.
One of the four was Shehzad Tanweer, a 22 year old born in Bradford and keen on cricket. A graduate in sports science from Leeds Metropolitan University he was described by his shocked friends and family as quiet and not interested in politics.
It is known he recently visited Pakistan and had begun to attend the mosque more frequently. Then one July morning, he travelled to London with three others. Caught on CCTV at Luton station, the four young men looked as though they were off on a fun day out together. At Kings Cross station they went their separate ways. Shehzad headed for Aldgate on the tube, where he died about 20 minutes later, killing seven fellow passengers and injuring 100 others, an act chillingly co-ordinated to synchronise with the other three.
What does his chart reveal about the inner workings of this man who became a destructive underground bomb? A solar chart (below) for mid day on 15th December 1982 (source of birth data :a photo of his birth certificate on front page of Daily Mail) shows a self-contained character (bowl shape). Four planets in Sagittarius show us the sportsman for whom truth and religion would be important (his moon, ruler of the Cancer north node, was in Sagittarius unless he was born in the last 45 minutes of the day), along with overseas connections, and a penchant for big statements.
Plutonian by nature, (Pluto conjunct Saturn square Mars, Saturn in Scorpio, Jupiter in Scorpio), he was having a Pluto transit across his sun, and possibly his moon, which he seems to have used to ally himself with a terrorist organisation and fundamentalist religion. Perhaps the Pluto in Libra fuelled a desire to balance up the death count between Britain and Iraq. He was also very Saturnian, with the south node and 2 planets in Capricorn in addition to Saturn’s involvement in that square.
His natal Neptune/Sun/Moon conjunction suggest an impressionable young man, possibly with a weak sense of identity which made him prey to delusions of martyrdom through the ultimate sacrifice. He certainly gained a grim celebrity. This configuration, together with Neptune conjunct Venus, may also explain how those close to him were deceived as to his intentions. Was he looking for a father figure? "Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber, and Hasib Hussain, 18, the bus bomber, both regularly attended the centre on Lodge Lane where the Edgware Road bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, did youth work. Tanweer and Hussain looked up to Khan as a "father figure" according to one friend, and regularly played football with him as part of the youth project." (Guardian 15 July 2005). Is this where he found the inspiration his firey Sagittarian nature craved? On a more mundane level, his sun in Sagittarius conjunct Neptune also describes his foreign born father who ran a fish and chip business.
It would be interesting to speculate as to what ascendant masked the inner rage and suppressed tension of that Pluto, Saturn, Mars square. According to Shezad’s cousin, "Shehzad Tanweer is remembered by his family and friends as a gentle, loving boy who always had a smile on his face. But Shehzad grew into a calm and peaceful young man. Nothing could anger him. I cannot recall the last time I heard him even raise his voice. Cousin Shehzad’s parents taught him that violence didn’t solve anything, and that violence is not accepted in Islam. My parents would always remind me about the meaning of the word Islam - peace." (Guardian 18 July 2005)
Other young men were born that day and grew up to a different destiny. That square could have manifested in other ways. Indeed, it helped Shehzad win his collection of sports trophies. One wonders if, had he waited until the Pluto transit had passed, would he still be alive? Under this transit he visited Pakistan where he may have been ‘radicalised’, a polite term for the process of becoming a fundamentalist terrorist connected to an underworld network; one of the so called 'enemies within'. We have Pluto in Sagittarius writ large, empowering and emboldening a young man whose life path made him a seeker of spiritual truth.
Mercury and Venus in Capricorn conjunct the south node suggests a pull towards people with traditional thinking, perhaps those who supported a rigid interpretation of the Koran. Both planets are disposited by Saturn in Scorpio, which also rules the south node, continuing the dark theme of death. How many people with Jupiter in Scorpio choose to ‘grow’ through death? As dispositor of both his sun and moon, Jupiter reinforced his Plutonian character and his need for an intensity not easily catered for by cricket.
What can one say about Mars in Aquarius sextile Uranus and square to Saturn and Pluto? How about a sudden explosion and death in a confined space underground for a political cause and linked to a terrorist organisation? The fixed square from Mars to Saturn would certainly keep him committed to a course of action and disciplined enough to detonate the explosive to schedule at precisely 8.49am. Appalling as it was, the act took courage. Venus in Capricorn would have fulfilled an agreement made with friends.
On that fatal 7th July, transiting Saturn was making an exact square to his natal Pluto. Solar Fire describes this as follows “Life is challenging during this transit, as you are required to move out of your comfort zone and incorporate change. As a result you may be forced to take a deep look at yourself and those around you. You feel as though you are stepping into unknown territory, and this can be frightening. However, take comfort in the thought that by the end of this period you will have been stripped of a lot of excess baggage, which can be actually quite rejuvenating.” In the light of what we now know, these words have a distinctly spine-chilling quality.
The symbolism of the south node may go deeper. He chose to commit his terrorist act at Aldgate. The name comes from the Saxon eald, meaning 'old gate', the name given to the eastern entrance to Roman city walls, which dates back to c200 AD. That particular underground tunnel runs along the edge of the City of London. Heavily protected above ground by the so called 'ring of steel', that historic part of London contains some of the oldest and most important financial establishments in the world (south node in Capricorn, conjunct Venus in Capricorn). Was there a karmic connection here?
Pluto is about birth as well as death and there was a new moon on the day of Shezad's birth, so he carried an energy of new beginnings. The media have focussed on the dead that day. But what began? Terrorism is not new to London. This year is the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament. The early 1970s saw IRA bomb incidents at London railway stations and in 1996 there was the Docklands blast. This, however, was the first suicide bomb attack on British soil that we know of. We now fear 'the enemy within' and cannot just seek to protect ourselves from 'foreigners'. The London Underground, which offered wartime shelter from bombs 60 years ago, has potentially become a place of terror. Londoners are having to learn to live with a new fear. Maybe we will all learn to live more in the present. In the words of W.B. Yeats, in his poem Easter 1916, written after the Irish Republican uprising: "All changed, changed utterly / A terrible beauty is born"
