The words used during war can have special significance - who can forget the classic "collateral damage" from the first Gulf War? E-cyclopedia will be keeping an eye out for the words being used in this conflict, and what they actually mean.

"The idiocy of this little man does not stop at making fabrications and feigning concern for the destiny of mankind, as though he were the absolute custodian of humanity, while his intent is to bring killing, destruction and death to humanity.

On this Full Moon evening (Pisces Sun, Virgo Moon--the "service" signs) I am feeling so much. A few of you have written recently and asked what I am feeling as we move toward war (or more precisely, what are my thoughts!) and this is such a hard question to answer. Of course I feel outrage and a deep sense of disbelief, all this on the surface potentially ready to explode into judgment and anger. But more deeply I have felt, and continue to feel, a deep sense of calm sadness over the inevitability of events, the "ripening of karma" as the Buddhists put it. After all, our government was not elected in the first place, and we didn't stop them, so it's hardly surprising that they are acting in ways that are not congruent with our interests. There is something much larger at work here.

One way to view it is through astrology, which shows a scenario more complex than the simple-minded events unfolding in the external daily reality. The chart of George Bush and the chart of Saddam Hussein are interlocking, along with the charts of the U.S. and Iraq. The transits to those charts are targeted in ways that seem almost supernatural, certainly fateful, and cause one to pause and reflect on destiny (both individual and collective), the ripening of karma, and the deeper reincarnational structure that holds us all in place.

The Vatican says anyone who gives up on peace will answer to God. For weeks, the Vatican has repeatedly spoken out against the possibility of war in Iraq. Pope John Paul says the use of force is a last resort and should only be considered after all peaceful means are exhausted.

The Vatican's short response to President Bush's ultimatum for Saddam Hussein says anyone who believes peace is exhausted "assumes a grave responsibility before God, his own conscience and history."

George W. Bush, with his no-frills education, may believe that God or Moses, or some other sacred advisor, gave us this as a commandment: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

It was in fact the Babylonian king Hammurabi who said it first. And he wasn't urging his own people to be more ferocious, more bloodthirsty. He was trying to make them less so. He was saying, in effect, that if you must seek revenge, you are entitled to this much of it, and not one bit more. Otherwise, you will create more people entitled to closure, until everybody in Babylonia is going to be seeking closure, and our once great country will go down the toilet of history.

Which it did.

And I thank you for your attention.

'But the Trojans dismissed the warnings as "windy nonsense" and sealed their fate. We Americans are the Greeks of our day, and as we now go to war, we should appreciate not only the beauty of the tale, but also the warnings within it.'

Many people in the world today are concerned about the current situation in Mesopotamia, specifically, the threat of war between the United States and Iraq. This is holy ground, home of one of the most ancient and venerable civilizations on Earth. A major war in this region would be a great tragedy not only for the people of region, but for all peoples everywhere. We wish to pray for peace by appealing to the oldest Goddess known from anywhere in the world, Inanna. She was worshipped thousands of years ago by the direct ancestors of the present-day Iraqi peoples. She was called Inanna when the region was known as Sumer, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite, and Virgin Mary by later civilizations.