The United Nations announced that the world's first permanent international 
war crimes tribunal formally comes into existence on July 1 this year. The 
1998 treaty creating the world court needed 60 countries to ratify it by 
their national governments before coming into effect. That number was 
surpassed last Thursday despite strong opposition by the United States. 



The evolution of the World Court closely follows the Saturn-Neptune cycle. 
Saturn and Neptune were conjunct in 1989 to begin this cycle, a time which 
brought the collapse of virtually every communist regime. Not until the fall 
of the Iron Curtain could a global court be established, and the conjunction 
ended a major geopolitical obstacle, and allowed for the beginning of 
something new. 



The challenge of creating an institutional form (Saturn) for the vision of 
global justice (Neptune) came with the Treaty of Rome signed on July 18, 
1998. At that time Saturn had moved ahead of the slower Neptune to make an 
opening square. Last week when ten countries stepped up simultaneously to put 
the Treaty into effect, Saturn was harmoniously trine Neptune.



From this process we can see that when Saturn and Neptune are opposed to each 
other in 2006, the World Court will face a huge challenge, perhaps its first 
significant case. In the mean time, the World Court horoscope (July 1, 2002; 
12 am; The Hague, Netherlands) features the Sun in Cancer opposed to Chiron, 
an odd reflection of George Bush's Sun-Chiron square. The Sun-Chiron aspect 
instills a determination to achieve great accomplishments in order to 
overcome inherent feelings of weakness or woundedness.