As a Japanophile, I was completely out of words this morning when I heard the news about the 8.9 earthquake near Sendai, Japan. There are places on television right now that I recognize from my vacations to Japan. It’s unreal. My heart goes out to Japan and its people.
As an astrologer, I noted the time the earthquake took place so I could draw up and interpret the chart. You must understand that astrology can’t “foresee” any of these events. Firstly, because the astrologer must *look* for it. If you do not specifically look for it, you will not notice it. If you do not ask, you will not receive an answer. It’s as simple as that. Secondly, even if there were indications of a mundane disastrous event, to pinpoint the location is nearly impossible. It would take hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of study and the place in danger is at best a big geographical band stretching the entire globe diagonally.
Regardless, and with ease of hindsight, I present the chart of the Japan earth quake of 11th of March 2011, 14:46 PM local time, Sendai, Japan.
The first thing you can notice about this chart is the stellium (multiple planets) in house 8; the astrological reference to death, deep and hidden things.
For earthquakes astrologers usually look at the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Uranus is in the 29th degree, known as ‘the anaretic degree’. Uranus is associated with earthquakes due to its dislocating and shock potential. At the same ‘anaretic degree’ we also find Neptune ‘god of the sea’. The anaretic degree, which I’ve talked about before on this blog, is a degree of a fate you can’t escape… Traditionally this degree has been appointed this status because ‘the most evil stars in the heavens’ reside here. Moonvalley astrologer describes it as “The Destroyer” or “A planet that destroys form”. That Uranus is in Pisces and Neptune is almost entering Pisces are tell tale signs that the quake originated from the sea.
Uranus itself is conjunct the fixed star Scheat: death through drowning or by water especially if in 1st, 6th, 8th or 10th houses. [Robson*, p.207.] Tied up with ‘malefics’, this could lead the native to lose his life in catastrophes, such as floods, shipwreck, mining accidents, airplane accidents, or maybe suicide.
If we look further into the chart we see the Moon is at 00.07 degrees Gemini. A long time ago when I reported about the assassination attempt on Queen’s day in the Netherlands, it had a similar connection to the Pleiades. For the Japan earthquake, the Moon is with the Pleiades. The group of stars in the Pleiades are often referred to as the weeping sisters for when this degree falls in conjunction with the rising degree, the Midheaven, or another significant point, tragedies ranging from blindness to disgrace and ruin or even violent death have been associated.
The best out of the old texts comes from the star Taygete [Pleiades], conjunct the Moon in this chart:
“as soon as the Pleiad Taygete has displayed her comely face to the earth, and spurns with her foot the despised waters of the ocean; or when the same star, flying the constellation of the watery Fish, descends in sadness from the sky into the wintery waves.”
Would astrologers be right to assume a heightened risk for catastrophic events when several (outer) planets reach the 29th degree and the weeping sisters connect in an unfortunate way to the chart? Certainly not full proof, but there are common denominators in astrology when it comes to disaster charts.
