Planetary Influences?

I’ve been reading In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky about Gurdjieff and came upon this passage:

The conversation began with my question: “Can war be stopped?” And G answered: “Yes, it can.” And yet I had been certain from previous talks that he would answer: “No, it cannot.”

“But the whole thing is: how?” “It is necessary to know a [p. 24] great deal in order to understand that. What is war? It is the result of planetary influences. Somewhere up there two or three planets have approached too near to each other; tension results. Have you noticed how, if a man passes quite close to you on a narrow pavement, you become all tense? The same tension takes place between planets. For them it lasts, perhaps a second or two. But here on earth, people begin to slaughter one another, and they go on slaughtering maybe for several years. It seems to them at the time that they hate one another; or perhaps that they have to slaughter each other for some exalted purpose; or that they must defend somebody or something and that it is a very noble thing to do; or something else of the same kind. They fail to realize to what an extent they are mere pawns in the game. They think they signify something; they think that they can move about as they like; they thing they can decide to do this or that. But in reality all their movements, all their actions, are the result of planetary influences. And they themselves signify literally nothing. (P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous New York, Harcourt (Harvest edition, 2001): 1949. pp. 23-4)

(A quick note about Gurdjieff’s ideas here before getting to the matter at hand: Gurdjieff does not say there is no free will, only that the nearly all people are machines. Some may have a potential to “do” (have free will) but only after long, hard work.)

As soon as I read that I remembered reading that Earth and Mars will be closer together than they will be for a long time on October 30th (a day before that scary date) this year. Not the closest ever, as some of the internet rumors are saying but pretty close (69 million km.) And with Mars being the god of war, well, maybe we have a start date for the big war. Interestingly, the closest approach ever in recorded history (56 million km.) actually happened in August of 2003, the summer the war in Iraq really heated up. And if you don’t believe that this would influence events, remember (with Umberto Eco and Jeff Wells) it’s not whether or not YOU believe this but whether THEY believe this that matters. SOMEONE is going to make the decision to strike the final match and they have to decide when.

What worries me is this. According to recent polls, whatever the effect of the London Bombings had on Tony Blair, they didn’t help Bush much in the United States. That means the one they are planning for the U.S. will need to be much worse in order to turn the public around on Bush and the war plans (for Iran, of course, but also Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.). A large scale bad event (THEY keep saying one is inevitable) in an important (preferably anti-Bush) American city seems to be what they are planning. Logically this would mean New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Since New York had its turn that leaves the other four. As long as Bush and the war were reasonable popular, they didn’t have to do it, but now, with the Bush administration teetering before the abyss, something more drastic might be needed. Or maybe they decide to throw Bush overboard with a scandal and impeachment showing the “system works” while putting more skilled managers in charge of the Plan. No doubt there are also forces that would be opposing such an action. It seems unclear at the moment who is going to prevail, but it does seem clear that

The evidence from 911, Madrid, and now London each taken in isolation proves that the people responsible were not those who are being blamed for it in the Official Story. Taken together, the similarities between the weak cover stories and poorly-disguised patsies in each story reinforce the conclusion.