Weekly Update

Happy New Year 2005
The Saturn-Ruled Season:
Holiday Celebration Marred by Natural Disaster in Pacific Rim
© Shelley Ackerman, 2005.

Just before Christmas, I commented to a good friend on how annually a group of very special souls who have significantly impacted the world seem to leave the planet between Dec 24 and Jan 1.

This year was no exception: Social Critic Susan Sontag, quintessential New Yorker and beloved actor Jerry Orbach, famed band leader Artie Shaw, and legendary guitarist Hank Garland all left us this week.

But nothing could have prepared us for the disastrous Tsunami that pummeled those sultry Asian shores where the death toll is now approaching 150,000.

What in the heavens foretold of this nightmare and can astrologers better prepare the world for such events?

In studying the chart of the earthquake and subsequent deadly tidal waves of Dec 26 2004, a couple of things pop out immediately: It occurred just hours before a full moon @ 5° Cancer/Capricorn. The Sabian symbol for 5 degrees of Cancer is: A Train Wreck. Even more compelling is the fact that the degree of the moon when the tsunami hit was 28° Gemini, the exact degree of the moon at the time of the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001!

There are 2 important fixed stars between 28° and 29° Gemini: Polaris, The 'Pole Star' of Sickness, trouble, loss, affliction, (and spiritual powers); and Betelgeuse on Orion's Right Shoulder which too speaks of calamities.

Astrologer John Cook (www.planetaryhealing.com) reminds that Neptune is now on its own South Node 13° Aquarius indicating sizeable loss through Oceans, Water, and illness) and that the nodes at 29° Aries/Libra are where they were at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. Saturn and Chiron were opposing one another then as they are now.

But the most significant warning was found in the full moon chart of 12/26/04 @ 10:08 PM in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. In that chart, Mars at 0° Sagittarius is exactly on the IC at 29 Scorpio 58. Mars so tightly on the IC of a lunation chart must be watched for this kind of destruction in any region.

Carolyn Egan, an excellent astrologer specializing in weather has more on her site: www.weathersage.com

The silver lining through all of this is the outpouring of help from all corners of the world. We are on common ground and the world's response to this disaster has been heartening. As we realize just how fragile and precious life is, we're reminded of the mysterious balancing act of the Universe: The nodes just went from Taurus/Scorpio to Aries/Libra, and we're individually and collectively dealing with the needs of self versus the needs of others. Saturn, Lord of Karma, is squaring the nodes. Why does it take this kind of devastation for humanity to show its heart?

Why indeed.

Big Business the world over outsources its labor to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, and Thailand, and other spots that were so badly hit. Many workers there are underpaid miserably to insure heftier profits. Saturn always demands that the karmic books balance one way or another. Where we have been so stingy, we now must pay. As of this moment, the headline 'Axis of Evil' Tops Bush's Second-Term Agenda is coming across the wires. What of the "Axis of Greed"?

As we look to the year before us, the earth's natural resources will continue to make headlines. And although romance and culture are both on the rise (Jupiter in Libra through October 25th says 2005 will be a banner year for exquisite weddings, haute couture, and lavish entertaining) Mars and Saturn add another dimension to the proceedings:

While the fiddlers play, things in Washington will be heating up big time. By mid year, "hoarding" will be in the news as Mars cycles forward and backward for 7 long months in Taurus, a slow materialistic 'chess game' type transit that last occurred in late 1973-early '74. At that time there was a serious oil shortage, long lines at the gas pumps, a tanking economy, and an administration unraveling with a presidency in danger.
Will history repeat itself?

The last quarter of 2005 will see a dramatic phenomenon known as a 'mutual reception' between Jupiter (in Scorpio) and Pluto (in Sagittarius), not seen since 1757! The opposition between Mars in Taurus (fiery earth) and Jupiter in Scorpio (fiery water) could give way to major news stories about the earth's natural resources and the scorching of oil fields. The current trend in religious fervor will reach new heights and depths, with many wondering if the words fundamentalism, tolerance, and redemption can co-exist in the same sentence. Hot investigative journalism will once again find favor in the mainstream media and we'll see the emergence of this generation's Woodward, Bernstein, Tarbell, and Steffens. The hunger for truth and getting to the bottom of things will be insatiable and in vogue.