Battle of Gallipoli Centenary

Relatives of veterans who fought in Gallipoli - one of World War One's bloodiest campaigns - have met the Prince of Wales to mark its centenary. Prince Charles and Prince Harry met the relatives on HMS Bulwark, ahead of services on the Turkish peninsula. Leaders from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey - which all lost thousands of troops - will also attend memorials.

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı) was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.

To understand this historical event through the lens of mundane astrology, we start with the applicable  Capricorn Ingress chart drawn for Gallipoli. Notice that the Ingress Sun activates the Mars-Saturn-Pluto opposition which is a combination that one would associate with a titanic struggle or battle. Ebertin’s key phrases for this combination are:

Tenacity and toughness, endurance, the capability to make record efforts of the highest possible order, the ability to perform the most difficult work with extreme discipline. Brutality, assault and violence; the necessity to fight for one’s existence or life.

What makes this combination specially significant for Gallipoli is the T-square to the meridian axis. But also notice that Neptune not only forms aspects to both ends of the Mars-Sun-Saturn-Pluto opposition but is carried to the MC on  25 April 1915 in the progressed chart. Mars-Neptune is not only referring to a naval invasion but Neptune brings about weakness,  indecisiveness and lack of clarity in any battle plan that Mars may have.

Finally, it is relevant to add here that the star Betelgeuse of Orion the Hunter or Warrior is conjunct Saturn-Pluto in the T-square mentioned above. Diana Rosenberg associates this star with great historical battles and events which Gallipoli certainly was.